The Perfect Vessel
by ShadowOfSelfDestruction
Summary: She used to be Orochimaru's perfect vessel, the perfect weapon. Conquering the Leaf Village was her only destiny. She was his perfect vessel, and then he showed up. Sasuke Uchiha.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

She used to be Orochimaru's perfect vessel, the perfect weapon. Conquering the Leaf village was her purpose, no, her destiny. So far Lord Orochimaru claimed her to be, so far undergoing the experiments Kabuto claimed were necessary to investigate she was worthy enough to be his perfect vessel. She was his perfect vessel, and then he showed up.

Sasuke Uchiha.

She looked around the corner, playing sneaky-peek, glaring at the boy with raven black hair and way, way too dark eyes. She noticed the curse mark in his neck. He was acting cold, he didn't seem to be afraid, like he had a purpose to be fulfilled that was in favor of Lord Orochimaru, so why be afraid? Just like her, she wasn't afraid of her Lord either, he needed her. Of course that was until now.

"Kumiko." Her Lord was smirking and hadn't turned his head yet before noticing the child standing behind the corner of the dark hallway, another one of Orochimaru's lairs. Slowly she revealed her face from the dark and continued her eternal staring at the floor, as if it were safer to avoid any eye contact with her Lord. Kabuto was lecturing her again, she wasn't allowed to spy on the Lord. But the only thing Kumiko was hearing at the moment was the surprisingly relaxing respiration of the young boy standing next to her Lord. The only thing she saw at the moment were those dark dark eyes, that raven black hair, and that way too pale skin for a ninja living in the Land of Fire, the village Hidden in the Leaves. But where he came from or what his name was she didn't know yet. Orochimaru looked up at his used-to-be perfect vessel and told her to come forward. She did while continue looking at the boy. Somehow, her Lord thought this behaviour was very interesting.

"Kumiko," and she looked up when she heard the hissing voice of her master. "It's most impropriate to stare at our guest." Lord Orochimaru had a good way of using words and how to pronounce them. The child felt guilty, and she apologized.

"When will I be able to kill Itachi," the boy cursed angrily. Kumiko flashed herself in front of her master and casted a kunai knife at him, which he seized without any effort. Kumiko never missed, and she hadn't missed this time either. It wasn't her intention to hurt him, she was just trying to scare him, to protect her master, but her master was mad now, and his smile had vanished. "Kumiko, that's enough!"

Kabuto lifted his glasses. It was time again. Every time he did that, she was supposed to walk to the surgery, and Kabuto would continue his investigation. She didn't like it, she had never liked it, but her Lord desired it from her, and so she would satisfy his desires.

"Let's go Kumiko." The child followed the medical ninja humbly and stole another glare at the boy.

She used to be his perfect vessel, and then he showed up.

Sasuke Uchiha.

* * *

Sasuke laughed in his very own Sasuke-way, a simple Sasuke-chuckle, and watched how she left the room. Her eyes were this far from stabbing him through the heart, full of pain, sorrow, but also determined, with a purpose laying in front of her. Sasuke knew this because his eyes were the same.

Unlike his black ones though, hers were ice ice blue, almost too bright to be true. He didn't fear the girl's attempt of striking him with a kunai knife, he did fear her eyes. So icy blue it was reasonable to think her special jutsu was turning humans into ice. Her face was framed by her perfect long brown hair. Her face was perfect. Too perfect. She was too perfect. She was fake.

"Sasuke," Orochimaru spoke to catch his attention, in which he had succeeded. "No need to rush, life's too short for that." He smiled by his own joke, of course he did. Easy for an immortal man to say so. "You must be tired, have a rest, take a nap. We'll start your training tomorrow."

"Fine," Sasuke snarled back. He wasn't thinking about showing any respect to someone like Orochimaru. He may have killed the third Hokage, Sasuke thought of him as weak. After all, why else would he ask an Uchiha for his body? He was his perfect vessel. Why was unimportant to him, he only cared about his revenge. He was his perfect vessel, and that was Sasuke's perfect opportunity.

* * *

"Kabuto," she whispered softly when she was laying on the operation table surrounded by all sorts of liquids, operation tools, computers and so one. "Who, who is that boy?"

"He's an Uchiha," and again he lifted his glasses when he was staring at the screen, keeping an eye on every action that was going on inside her body, things she had never heard of or didn't even knew about their existence.

"I thought the Uchiha clan had been extincted except for one member who joined the Akatsuki."

"It had. You see, Sasuke's an avenger. While his brother killed out their entire family, he decided to let his brother live." Kabuto's voice was somehow calming her down. Also he was able to use the right words in the right order in the right way. After all he had spent quite some time with Lord Orochimaru. She hadn't even noticed the injection-needle he was holding in his hand and adopting in her blood vessel. Injections were the least of her worries, she wasn't the kind of child to be afraid of doctors and medicines and needles, she was used to it, and she didn't feel any pain anyways. In fact, she felt nothing at all

"Sasuke, you say…" she whispered coldly. "Sasuke Uchiha…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1: Kumiko Nakamura**

It had happened a long time ago, but she still remembered it like it had happened yesterday. She was sitting in the living-room with her mother, playing Shogi, smiling, only eight years old and an uncomplicated life so far. She had no idea who her father was, she didn't ask about him either. It were just the two of them, and life was wonderful.

Until that one day, when one of the ninjas working for the Muzikage walked into their house. She was practicing archery with her favourite master Nibori, when she caught eyes on the man standing in the doorstep. Kumiko had never figured out what he was telling his mother that day. Her mother did, unfortunately.

"It's time," he said and Aimeka, Kumiko's mother, looked at her daughter standing in the garden and smiling at her. A tear found its way up to the floor.

She was being blindfolded and taken away, she had no idea where though, but by the duration of the walk it wasn't that far away from home. A noisy crowd filled her ears and she was aware she was somewhere in an arena, but seeing anything was difficult. It crossed her mind her mother maybe wanted to take her out for an arching-contest in the city, and wanted it to be a surprise. That was until the man removed the blindfold, and as her eyes slowly started getting used to the light, she realized she was standing in the middle of the arena. Her eyes searched for her mother, and when she found her she was sitting next to the Mizukage together with a man who she was holding hands with. For a moment she wondered who was frightened the most, she or her mother.

A door behind her back opened, and as she turned around she was faced with a dark tunnel and a shadow walking straight out of it. When the shadow approached and looked up, Kumiko couldn't believe her eyes. She saw herself.

"Mom? Mom what is this? Is this some jutsu?" But her mother didn't response, she was only looking at her in the utmost grief and sorrow, hiding her face in the man's shoulder who was sitting next to her. The girl who looked exactly like her was confused as well, screaming out for her father, more scared then Kumiko was. When the rumour got worse, people shouting and encouraging for who knows what, the Muzikage lifted his hand and the crowd suddenly stopped. "Kumiko. Kaoru." The two girls in the ring looked up at their leader who was speaking to them. "You've been spending eight years of your precious life alone with your father or mother, separated from each other only to grow up and live for this day that is about to change your life." The crowd started cheering again as the Mizukage continued his speech, and he looked at my mother and the man sitting next to her. "You've been trained by your mother and father only for this one day. Now the time has come for you… to fight!" The climax of the speech had been given, and the people joined it soon afterwards. They both looked at each other, narrowing eyes and tightening hands ready to grab a ninja tool from their pockets. Kumiko understood what was going on, and if faith had chosen them to be so, she would fight and she _would_ kill.

"_Mommy?"_

"_Yes dear?"_

"_How come I've never seen any twins in the Hidden Mist?" Kumiko's eyes were shining full of expectation so her mother would have to answer the question. Aimeka knew that one day her daughter would ask this. Not long ago they'd been on vacation in the Hidden Sound to visit a friend of hers. She was a twin and had fled from the Hidden Mist together with her brother. Of course she had, who wouldn't. A twin's destiny was considered as darkness in the Hidden Mist. This was why her daughter couldn't know. _

"_You see Kumiko," and her smile vanished when she looked in her daughter's painfully beautiful eyes, who looked exactly the same like… No she couldn't think about her. "It's because… Whenever a twin is born, each of them obtain an enormous amount of power, and they have more chakra amount and natures than any other people." Kumiko listened interested at her mother's explanation. "But there's an even greater way to obtain even more power as a twin."_

"_How?" _

"_Twins can combine their powers until one of them is able to obtain all of it, also called as the Survivor. A Survivor is as good as undefeatable, one of the strongest ninjas you'll ever see." _

"_And what happens with the other twin? The one that loses its powers?"_

_Aimeka looked how the sun slowly disappeared beyond the horizon and offered her her last warmth and light. "He dies."_

"Now the time has come for you… to fight!"

* * *

Kumiko had succeeded her battle and had obtained her twin sister's power, a sister she didn't even know of its existence. She didn't bear a grudge towards her mother for not telling her, after all it was the Hidden Mist's custom. A girl like Kumiko should be honoured to represent the better half of a twin, and now she finally had the father she had been longing for so much. A father she had stolen from her twin sister, just like her life, only to obtain power. She would've done the same though.

People started looking down on her after that battle. They all watched her with the same eyes, they were afraid of the little girl who had conquered her sister in battle and now had a three-double amount of chakra. She wasn't a jinchuriki, yet still people looked at her the same way. But they had forgotten that the very power inside of that girl, was something they had created themselves, for it was their own selfish tradition, a battle between two sisters, twins. For the village Hidden in the Mist, they thought of Kumiko as a weapon, another jinchuriki to possess more power, and people feared her for having those powers.

There was a strange tension roaming around the atmosphere of her so-called home. The man that had been along mommy's side was now supposed to be called daddy, and master Nibori visited very few times. The times he did come along he always exchanged misunderstanding faces with mommy, faces Kumiko didn't understand, and somehow, Kumiko had no idea why, they had stopped sharing a bed. New real daddy replaced fake fake daddy, and Kumiko watched how her mother's happiness slowly decreased ever since fake daddy left.

Kumiko had lost her smile and had lost her happiness, her parents were strangers, they as well were afraid of their daughter who had behold jutsus and chakra in the ring they had never admired in the Hidden Mist before. Her power frightened them, and so they spoiled her with sweets, toys and love, lots and lots of fake love. Kumiko never took advantage of this though, she continued archery with her favourite sensei, master Nibori, who seemed more like a father to her then her real one, the one she had met at the area and still didn't call daddy, because daddy wasn't a part of her family, daddy had vanished long ago her mother used to tell her.

Master Nibori was one of the few people who didn't look at her with _those eyes_. His were still admiring and caring and loving, just how she remembered them to be. He was a legendary archer and had taught her from the moment she was able to hold a bow and arrow. She called him her daddy, because he cared for her like a daddy and loved her like a daddy, and he slept with mommy like a daddy. Little did she know it was wrong. Little did she know mommy was married to real daddy, who had spend eight years of his life separated from his wife to take his responsibility as father of a twin, because after all this was the Hidden Mist's way of life. No twin was allowed to know of the other one's existence, and so daddy trained the first born, and mommy the second. Little did she know that her mommy was cheating on her real daddy, until one day, when fake daddy Nibori paid a little visit again to see his favourite pupil. Kumiko was happy again to see him, and cried out his name when her mother opened the door revealing her favourite teacher. She cried out dad, and real daddy didn't like it.

She was walking home on her tenth birthday in the hope of her parents preparing a birthday party when she would arrive from ninja school. She was the only Chuunin among her classmates, some of them were still academy students while others had received their first ninja headbands and were called Genin. They thought of Kumiko as someone strange, after all she was the Survivor of the twins. As soon as her classmates discovered that, they neglected their used-to-be friend, because she was too good, too much of a great ninja, too pretty. Kumiko had lost her smile and happiness, and now she started forgetting how it felt like to have friends. Isolated from the world as she was, she entered the door, but no one was home. No note on the table with a happy birthday, no birthday decoration and no presents in the living-room. The only present was a spot of ketchup on the carpet of the living-room, but Kumiko didn't like this so continued her resurge for her family.

Daddy was sleeping in the hammock in the garden, and he had spilled some ketchup on his clothes. Mommy and fake daddy were swimming in the pond of their backyard, also spilled ketchup on their clothes. They were floating on the surface of the water, eyes wide open and mouth as well, like haunted ghosts waiting for children to arrive and scare them.

"Masakazu?" she called out to her real father, because she still refused to call him daddy. He looked up at his daughter when she noticed the redness pouring out of his mouth. He smiled pitiful at his beautiful daughter with the way too icy blue eyes, just like her dead dead sister and her dead dead mother. Kumiko looked exactly like her mother, except for the way too pale skin, and he smiled when he at least recognized one feature she had inherited from him. "Kumiko," he gasped and told her to come closer. "It's your birthday isn't it?" His daughter nodded betraying the slightest fear in her eyes, fear for her own daddy, her real daddy.

"Happy birthday." Slowly he closed his eyes and the familiar sound of his heart pounding stopped just like his regular respiration.

* * *

They discovered Kumiko wrapped in her mother's arms a few days later, the teachers worrying that she still hadn't showed up in school after three days. A bunch of Jounin barged in their house and found the girl in the garden, laying in the hammock between her two parents while master Nibori was still swimming in the pond. The stench of rotting corpses had taken its toll, but she was sleeping peacefully in the embrace of her parents, one of them with mouth and eyes wide open, and the other one closed. And the red liquid she had taken for ketchup had been absorbed by her angelical white clothes.

She struggled when they took her with them, and cried out they had to leave her parents alone, that they were tired and needed more sleep, but the Jounin were awaking them. The next moment one of the Jounin turned his head towards the screaming girl, choked in his own breath and hit the ground when a chunk of ice started to take over his body. It started with frosting his eyes, and his hands were desperately trying to get rid of it and stop it, but it was slowly spreading to his mouth and the rest of his body, leaving behind a most intense and horrifying soreness. Other Jounin tried to stop it, but from the moment they touched the ice it took over their body as well, and also they roared an screamed and cried, the ice tracing down a path all the way up to their heart, almost burning inside their flesh. Kumiko watched how three Jounin turned into ice until they stopped screaming and scratching themselves and the only thing left was the frozen water that had pulverized their entire skin, bones and organs. The Jounin who had been holding her a minute ago pushed her aside, scared to get killed by the same sorcery. But Kumiko had no idea this was her doing. And when she began to cry the man started showing the same symptoms as the first one and it didn't take long before the man went up in a flame of ice, his skin eaten away faster and more painful than even the hottest flames of fire. Only two Jounin remained, and they ran away leaving the girl behind in her own fortress of ice.

Kumiko revealed her face to the village again, but they were all staring at her with _those eyes_. Some of the parents hid their children, told them not to look her in the eyes, and Kumiko continued her walk down the village, the people backing off like she was spreading a sea. She wasn't another jinchuriki yet the people treated her like one. A boy was standing in the shadows, squashing himself tight against the wall that blocked his attempt of running away. She recognized the boy and approached him, until he screamed and ran away, leaving behind the slightest amount of his tailed-beast chakra. People were afraid of her, and the jinchuriki was afraid of her.

The Mizukage had never specifically requested it, Kumiko knew it was time for her departure. The very own people who agreed with the twin's tradition, who were merely responsible for the creation of this _monster_, were the ones who wished her dead. And so the girl with the way too icy blue eyes and pale pale skin packed her belongings and decided to discover a new definition to the word home.

The Mizukage was furious about the departure of his very own perfect weapon. This girl was the key to their protection, other lands would fear them and leave them alone, and conquering other lands would become something effortless. He told his best team of Jounin to leave the village and bring back his perfect weapon, and so a long journey to Kumiko begun. Meanwhile the people who had watched his weapon with _those eyes_, were being punished severely. That was until the team of Jounin, the remain of the team at least, returned back to the village Hidden in the Mist. The Mizukage narrowed his eyes when his most loyal ninja explained him what had happened. They had been faced with the enemy, Lord Orochimaru.

* * *

"My my, such a lovely little girl as yourself wandering around in the forest all alone."

Kumiko looked up at the man standing in front of her, staring at those snake's eyes and even paler skin than hers. He smiled at her, he wasn't looking at her with _those_ _eyes_. It filled her with hope somehow, as he reached out for the flower she was holding in her hands, not even afraid to come any closer near her. Hope she hadn't felt for a long time, because ever since then she didn't feel anything anymore. What was pain again, and how does it feel? Friends, what are those things? Happiness, does it even exist? My purpose? My destiny? I have yet to discover, or maybe I don't have one at all.

"Maybe, just maybe, there is no purpose in life. But if you linger a while longer in this world, you might discover something of value in it, like how you discovered that flower. Or, how I discovered you."

He was good with words, he knew how to use them and how to pronounce them. For once this man didn't turn into ice when she looked him in the eyes, because he wasn't afraid of her. Maybe, just maybe, this man could _give_ her a purpose in life. Just maybe.

As his words were as enchanting as his smile, a smile Kumiko never used to receive from any other people, she followed the man that was about to leave. Her eyes filled with tears as she wrapped her arms around the strangers waist in the hope of not leaving her all by herself again.

"You're not the smartest one, are you dear," he was hissing again, almost singing, when he watched how the girl exposed her weaknesses in front of a stranger she had never met in the first place. "Oh well," he smiled and took her hand, "you might as well come with me." And although his eyes and smile betrayed something ominous, Kumiko felt that strange feeling of hope again in her stomach. Not happiness or friendship, only hope to maybe, just maybe, today would be the day she'd regain a new purpose in life, a new destiny.

"Kabuto." Another boy turned his head while being busy mixing herbs and liquids in a bowl, crushing them and adding something else, and took a glimpse at the girl his master was holding in his hands. His Lord seemed happy, he always did, at least he always smiles like that when he was pleased. "I brought you something."

He lifted his glasses to take a good look at the young girl with the icy blue eyes and the pale pale skin, who was hiding her face behind her new protecting angel, more of a protecting demon. As he was busy with admiring the girl's beauty he accidently cut his finger and the slightest scratch of blood appeared, Kumiko remembering this as being 'ketchup'. But the boy apparently named Kabuto only had to lift it to heal the scar, and Kumiko was fascinated by this. Lord Orochimaru as well noticed how his perfect vessel showed a strong attention to Kabuto's medical jutsus. "What am I supposed to do with that?"

"I want you to examine her."

"You don't mean," Kabuto asked in disbelieve.

"She could be a perfect vessel." The Lord was smiling at his assistant's overwhelmed face when he took another glare at the girl. He was watching her with _those eyes_ again, why wouldn't they stop? Why wouldn't they just look at her like any other girl?

"Kabuto!" Lord Orochimaru's remark made the boy stop. "That's enough!" Her Lord's smile had disappeared, but somehow the boy wasn't showing any fear. And from that moment on the girl with the icy blue eyes and the pale pale skin knew that her new master would be the one to give her a purpose in life, a destiny. Because he had the strength to stop the icy glares of others, and that was the only thing Kumiko wanted to stop.

* * *

The next two years she spent her days with her new master, gaining power, designing new jutsus and mastering the old ones. Her Lord was happy with the progress his perfect vessel was making, because after all the stronger she got now, the stronger he will get. She continued archery, a lifelong passion, and discovered a new favourite master, Kimimaro, who taught her more about it than she could've ever hoped. They never spoke much, and they weren't friends, but somehow Kumiko looked at him and saw the face of her fake fake daddy. Life with her master was heavy to bear, such complex things as love, loyalty, trust and friendship were unknown in the darkness. But the only thing Kumiko desired was not to be alone, and Orochimaru was able to satisfy her desire. Laughing, no, feeling any emotion was out of the question, and when she asked her Lord why it was that he could smile and the others couldn't, he only smiled and told her there's a difference between a smile and actually smiling, and when she told him she didn't understand he only answered she'd figure it out when she was ready for it.

After about six months Kabuto sent her and a group of elite ninjas called 'the ninja sound four' on her first mission. It was a very simple one to test Kumiko's strength: to eliminate the Mizukage. His residence was in the centre of the village, and from the very top of the mountains near the village, an arrow had been shot into the head of the Mizukage, and he died only seconds later. One of the members, Sakon smiled, he or she, Kumiko hadn't discovered yet whether it was a man or woman, thought of the little spectacle as something funny. The whole village and the villagers as well were panicking, desperately trying to find the source of the arrow, while that source was actually sitting in a tree at the top of the mountain outside the village. It was ironic, but smiling was too much of an effort. Kumiko didn't smile, why would she, she didn't even know how to.

"Sakon"

The head of the ninja sound four looked up at the girl who had spoken to him for the very first time. While he had imaged her voice to be so much more tender and soft, it was actually broken and hoarse. "Yes?"

"I want revenge."

He smirked when he watched the icy look in her eyes, hunger for killing, and told the other ninjas to leave. "Make it quick."

While they were leaving, Kumiko took one last glare at the village that had destroyed her entire life and family. She remembered the very last words her sister, the one she had never known, spoke. She had told her she was proud to be her twin sister, and touched her forehead and a blue amount of chakra was being transposed into her small body. She remembered how she was screaming out in pain and the people were only cheering at the girl who had just killed her own sister, because she was the Survivor, she was the new ultimate weapon, she was hope to the village. If Kumiko only knew how it felt like to be disgusted.

She was hope, and she was about to become their mercy.

Her hand was being lift, and she spoke those very same words her master had taught her, in combination with the exact order of complex handsigns. The chakra around her body thickened and turned into water, more and more, eventually an entire ocean encircling around her. She would revenge her parents, and her fake fake daddy.

"Water-Windstyle, ice-tsunami."

* * *

After spending two years in one of Lord Orochimaru's lairs, she woke up one fateful day and stole a glare at the empty bed standing next to hers, Tayuya supposed to be sleeping in it. They weren't friends, of course they weren't, they were both servants of Orochimaru, yet Kumiko couldn't help but wondering where the only female member of the ninja sound four was, and when she discovered Kimimaro and the three male ones had left their rooms as well, it was clear they were out on a mission without her. Moments later she past by her master's door and heard him talking with Kabuto. Her Lord was still in great pain after the battle with the Third Hokage, and had been very difficult to please lately. And this time as well, she stood by as she heard how he was screaming out in pain, wishing there was something she could do to save her master, like he had saved her one fateful day.

"Maybe it's better if we find you a temporary vessel."

"No! It's his body I want!" It had been quite some time since Kumiko last saw her master this much in pain. Whose body, what vessel, what about hers?

"Kumiko, dear." He was hissing again, humming in his very own Orochimaru's way, and she entered the room, Kabuto looking down on her. She knew she wasn't allowed to peek, but she was worried about her master, the one that had offered her new hope and a new purpose, the one that had saved her body. Her master wasn't angry, and if Kumiko knew how it felt like to be surprised, that is what she would feel right now. In fact the smile that hadn't been present before had returned. "You've always been curious, isn't it Kumiko," and if his arms hadn't been demolished by that cursed Third Hokage, he would strike her chin in that enchanting way he always does.

"Lord Orochimaru," and she kneeled down in front of the chair he was sitting in, her head turned to the ground out of respect, not because she was scared. "Use my body."

Her master was slightly surprised by her offer, yet still pleased knowing it had come this far she would offer herself to him this easily. It made everything much more easier in general. "Kumiko, my child, I have other plans in mind for you."

"But master –"

"No contradiction Kumiko, leave!" Lord Orochimaru had always been good with words, and had always been good at scaring people when necessary. He changed his facial expressions in seconds, and therefore he needed to be feared even more, because Kumiko had no idea how to use _any_ expression at all.

Whatever this body was Lord Orochimaru desired for this much, and even if so it meant she would have to wait for another three years, she would satisfy her Lord's desires. And if having some other purpose in mind for her was what Lord Orochimaru wanted, she would, no matter what, listen to it and fulfil her new purpose in any possible way.

Whoever this vessel was, she wasn't Lord Orochimaru's perfect vessel anymore.

* * *

**Before you start complaining or whining. Indeed, Kumiko resembles a lot with Meisha from my other story Revival. Don't mind asking, I did it on purpose. I like using the same main character (partly because she reminds me of myself) but also because I think it's cool, like watching movies with the same actor(s) or actress(es). Both characters are awesome anyways and they only resemble from the outside. Don't forget to review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2: He never goes easy on her**

Sasuke was watching her while she was exercising. She didn't break a sweat, she never does, because that would make people think she was weak. But Sasuke, from all the people, knew that weakness was one of the few things Kumiko didn't know the meaning of.

"We're going training." He was already leaving in expectation of the girl, who now had become a young woman, following him. But compared to his expectations she just continued the push-ups. There wasn't much necessary to make Sasuke impatient like he was now, she was his shield and when he wants to train, she will obey him and follow him. The kunai knife he had casted towards her had aimed for her head, but Sasuke had no intention of killing the girl, because he knew she wouldn't get hurt. She stopped it without much effort and threw it back, Sasuke avoiding it right on time, because she was fast, really fast, faster than him, and that's exactly why they needed to train. Yet still she continued her exercises until the impatient boy who had become a young man now lost his patience and growled.

"500," she said when she finished her last push-up, and she stood up and looked at the boy who had activated his sharingan for no reason. Kumiko was used to his temper though, Sasuke had never been a patient man and he would never become one, not like she was. And that's exactly why he hated her so much. While he was being dominated by hatred all the time, she didn't show any feelings at all. She was annoying. And so without exchanging any more words the pale-skinned girl stood up and walked past her ward, the one she was supposed to protect and obey.

He hated her, more than anything in the world, but not as much as he detested his very own brother Itachi. Kumiko took peace with being the second-most-detested human on earth, she didn't like Sasuke anyways. She didn't like him, but she didn't hate him either. She felt nothing towards him, because that was their way of living. Her Lord was still her most precious ambition, and her Lord wanted her to look after Sasuke, and so she did. She used to be his perfect vessel, but Lord Orochimaru had discovered an even greater one, and although she regretted not being his perfect vessel anymore, it was her responsibility now to raise his new one.

What he hated the most about her was her face, because it never betrayed any emotions, and it was perfect, too perfect, fake. Her eyes were the most frightening, because they were so cold and blue and too bright to be true.

"Wrong," she told him again, and when she spoke you couldn't hear any intonation, you never heard it, and that was also a big feature of her annoyingness. She never said more than necessary either, another fact why he hated her so much. "Straighter," and she pointed at the sword Sasuke was holding in his hand. Those few times he heard her voice, he was always disappointed, for the girl was far one of the most beautiful he had ever witnessed, and while expecting a thousand whistles of a nightingale, it reminded him of an old sick crow. How Sasuke described it was exaggerating of course, and actually he should be happy for the girl was perfect in every possible way, except for her voice, so she wasn't that perfect after all.

"Kumiko." Kabuto had been watching them before interrupting their training. He lifted his glasses again and Kumiko walked towards him, leaving behind an angry Sasuke. "What about my training."

"Lord Orochimaru wants you to take a day off."

"Again? It's the third time already this week!"

"I'm sorry Sasuke, orders are orders," he smirked, and followed the girl who had already entered the lair of their master. Sasuke hated her even more. Of course she couldn't do anything about it, he just needed someone to blame, and she was the perfect victim.

"Kabuto," she gasped and continued her eternal staring at the ceiling in the hope that one day a message would be written on it. They had returned to Kabuto's surgery right away, and Kabuto was one of the few followers of Orochimaru who had been able to hear sentences longer than five words out of her mouth. "Am I not worthy enough to be Lord Orochimaru's perfect vessel."

"To be honest Kumiko, Sasuke represents all the features Lord Orochimaru had been looking for so desperately."

"I see..." Kabuto injected another one of his elixirs in her left arm. "Does that mean I'm useless?"

"Of course not. Lord Orochimaru choose you to protect Sasuke Uchiha. It's a great task, you should be honoured."

"I'll try to," she whispered as the poison was spreading through her veins, leaving nothing but a prevailing fatigue behind.

"Protecting Sasuke Uchiha is your new purpose now, your destiny." Slowly she fell asleep as Kabuto's familiar voice spoke out those familiar words, and with the tops of his fingers closed her eyes. When she was completely asleep he put on his plastic gloves and seized for his scalpel, to slice a perfectly straight scar right next to the other one on her breast. He couldn't cut her in her stomach anymore, that part of her body had already been mauled enough. And like any other surgery he started his routine with dipping the blood with a cotton, and when most of the blood was gone, he cut deeper and deeper.

* * *

She was watching his training with Orochimaru, while she actually wasn't allowed to. She envied the boy who had become a young man now, because he was learning new jutsus she hadn't even heard of. They were working within the circles of a pentagram, Orochimaru whispering words and performing the same handsigns as Sasuke who was meditating. Kabuto had told her he didn't need her anymore for the remain of the day, she had a day off and while most other people would use this opportunity to go on some adventure, spend some time in nature or god knows what else, she stayed within the dark catacombs of her Lord's lair, because she never had had a day off in her entire life with Orochimaru, and therefore was clueless what to do with it. It made her wonder how Sasuke spends his free days, and if he hadn't been bored back then. But after knowing him for more than two and a half years now, Kumiko could tell without any doubt he spent his days in training.

And so her master's smile had vanished right after noticing his used-to-be perfect vessel was peeking around the corner, because from all the things she knew well enough that he hated peeking. "Kumiko," he said and the girl entered the room, her icy blue eyes focussed on the floor which was for the best, because looking her Lord in the eyes now would only cause severe consequences. As she entered the room just like Sasuke remembered her to do so two and a half years ago during their first encounter, he watched every step she took, not even bothering Orochimaru angriness. "You know what the consequences are."

"Yes master," she answered impassive, like having it answered a thousand times over.

"I'll show you mercy this time, don't test my patience again."

"Yes, master," and she bowed and turned around, leaving her Lord and his perfect vessel behind. Sasuke was confused because he noticed how she hadn't been showing any fear, because being scared of Orochimaru was part of being a follower. But little did he know the girl with the icy blue eyes had grown tired of fear and all she wanted was to feel pain again, because Kumiko was senseless to any kind of feeling and emotion.

His master called out for him while he had been watching the girl slowly vanishing in the dark of the lair, and without much interest he turned his head to face him. "Let's call it out for today, shall we?"

"What? Again?"

"Come come Sasuke, I want my perfect vessel to be prepared for another day of training."

"I'm sick of quitting trainings early and getting days off!" Sasuke always activated his sharingan when he was angry, without any reason, his sharingan was unnecessary while speaking to his master, after all his own master wouldn't hurt his perfect vessel would he? Orochimaru was used to his temper of course and stayed perfectly calm under the circumstances of Sasuke pulling out his sword and pointing it at him. Of course Sasuke was too much of a coward to come any nearer his master with a weapon threatening in his hands, and out of frustration threw the snakesword aside and leaved angrily, because desolation was something he needed more than anything at this moment.

She had been watching of course, and followed every step up to his bedroom and watched how he growled and threw himself on the bed in an attempt of forgetting the frustration or at least diminishing it. That was until she showed up again, walked in his bedroom as silently as she always used to do, and glanced at his face full of hatred which was staring back hungrily. He was angry again, and every time he had been angry she had done the same thing to ease his anger, and so she would do it again, because taking care of her ward was her obligation, and that concluded every part of taking care of someone as far as it goes.

"You know what to do." She didn't tense a muscle when she told him this, because tensing muscles means showing you're scared, and Kumiko had forgotten how it felt like to be scared. Sasuke stood up from his bed and slowly walked into her, gently caressing her perfect, too perfect face with the icy blue eyes and the pale pale skin. "I won't go easy on you," and his lips started tracking down from neck to collarbone, but still her impassive facial expression didn't show any sign of life.

"You never do." As her final response was more or less agreeing, Sasuke pinned her against the wall and untied the sash around her waist that was keeping her white kimono closed, and slid down the fabric of her shoulders making it drop on the floor decorating her lovely small feet. The moans escaping from his mouth, as he had no idea where to start with his hands, were heavy and deep, but somehow Kumiko relaxed by them since she had gotten so familiar with them. His arms lifted her up and pinned her even tighter against the wall, his mouth covering the lovely nipples from her small still so perfect breasts, and just like his hands he had no idea where to start. He never kissed her on the lips, because kissing on the lips was a level too high of reach in their 'relationship' they didn't even share. Kissing was something for lovers to do, and love was a concept missing in their 'relationship'. It was based on anger and lust, and that was all Sasuke needed.

He groaned when he pressed himself against her, feeling his hardening getting tested to the limit between her two legs, still Kumiko's expression was the same as always. Nevertheless Sasuke was too busy for caring, and continued his personal way of dealing with anger and stress, the best one he had discovered so far. And since there was no other pretty girl among Orochimaru's servants, and since it was her responsibility to take care of Sasuke, Orochimaru having strictly confirmed _any_ way necessary, Kumiko was the only girl, young woman, who could fulfil Sasuke's desires as a young man, although Sasuke had forgotten a long time ago how it felt like to long for something so desperate you'd do anything to receive it.

"Sasuke," but he didn't stop when Kabuto entered his room, disturbing his treatment to unwind. Kumiko herself didn't mind it, she was used to it, and Kabuto, Sakon or Orochimaru himself had entered his bedroom several times before while she was 'treating' him. Sasuke wasn't the kind of person to care for a silly thing like that, almost every time when she was in his bedroom, the door was never closed, and some of Orochimaru's servants watched them and god knows what else they were thinking and doing. Because Sasuke didn't bother, and so she wouldn't bother either.

When Kabuto realized Sasuke wasn't about to stop, he lifted his glasses and raised his voice, his Lord's perfect vessel still continuing, so Kabuto would continue his task as well. "Lord Orochimaru wishes to see you."

"I'm busy," was the only thing Sasuke responded, when he told his protector to undress him, and so she did, busy untying the string around his waist and removing the remain of the excess of clothes

"I'm afraid that won't convince Lord Orochimaru."

"Leave us."

No matter what Kabuto would say, this man wouldn't change his mind. He wanted, no, needed this, and therefore, his master would have to wait. The medical ninja leaved eventually, annoyed by his spoiled behaviour, closed the door and Kumiko felt the unfamiliar sense of relieve he had closed it. Satisfying her ward's lusts were part of being his protector, enjoying it was another thing. She was used to this, and used to the pain as well, because Sasuke was never gentle with her, only in the beginning, but once the tension grew stronger his anger and lust did as well at the same time. Kumiko couldn't feel any pain so why bother and hold back.

He was groaning in her neck when her naked body was being wrapped around his, and Kumiko bit her under lip preparing for the worst when he was about to penetrate her, and Sasuke smiled every time she did that, because he had been the only one until now to change any expression in her face. He was never gentle with her, and he wouldn't be this time either, so at first he entered her softly and discovered a proper rhythm soon enough, to his liking of course. She was closing her eyes in the hope of the pain fading, although she knew better it wouldn't, but trying wasn't any harm. He was quicker and rougher than she wished, but biting away the pain was part of being his protector. After all Sasuke was the only one who was able to remember her the meaning of pain, because no one had ever been able of hurting her in battle before.

The pain only increased when temperature was increasing as well. She was getting used to it now somehow, and was staring blindly at the wall in front of her. She could feel he was coming, she knew it because his back tensed as it always does, and at this stage the pain was the worst. It was the stage when his anger took over as well as the sealed cursemark in his neck looking exactly the same as hers, only she was able to control it compared to him. She didn't show any signs of fear, but inside she was frightened without even realising, because again this particular emotion was unfamiliar to her like pain. And again Sasuke was the only one to remember her how it feels like. The tribal cursemark had settled all the way up to his toes, worse than normal, and they turned into colours of flames, slowly but painfully burning into Kumiko's skin. She'd have to heal if afterwards, Kabuto had taught her how to because he was getting sick of doing it himself, sometimes twice a day, and the smell of burning flesh overwhelmed his bedroom. This was the part she feared so much, and it happened every time, sometimes worse than other days, and this was definitely one of those worse days. The heat burning into her skin pulled her back at certain memories, and flashes of her sister battling her in the area and causing so, so much pain, physically and mentally, appeared in front of her eyes, playing on the wall at the other side of his room like an old movie, and she remembered how it felt like to be scared. Her sister whispering those very last words in her ear and offering her all of her chakra, and how it had hurt sealing the chakra inside her body, like a blue flame burning from the inside. Just like Sasuke's cursemark was burning her from the outside, and deep deep inside she wished she could remember this pain forever, but she knew she couldn't. So the only option was to protect him for the remain of his life.

Just like they never kissed, Sasuke never came inside of her, because having a son on his conscience needed to be avoided as much as possible, and so he let go of her and caught most of the semen with his hands, cursing no one had prepared a towel on his nightstand like they were ought to do. Blaming her because she was the one to take responsibility for him, and with one short smack hit her powerful in the face when she was crawled together sitting in the corner of his room on the floor, her face still not betraying any emotions which made him even madder. Not even when he had smashed her in the face, because she was used to it, because he blamed her for everything and therefore expected everything from her as well, while he knew as far as protecting and taking care of someone goes, preparing towels on the person's nightstand wasn't included with that. She could avoid any more slaps by a simple smile, cry or angry look, but Kumiko found changing her expressions more difficult than bearing another one of his fierce slaps, and so he did it again in an attempt of seeing _any_ emotion in her eyes, in vain of course. He got sick of it, washed his hands and leaved her in his room, Kumiko not even trying to get up to wash away the sticky white substance from the sperm he had mostly caught with his hands and which he had hit her with. She was busy trying to remember the pain he had caused just a minute ago, but it seemed more like years to her, because she had already forgotten how it felt like. She wanted to cry, but she didn't know how to, so she laid down on his bed and took in the familiar smell called Sasuke's, because it calmed her down somehow. It reminded her of someone, just like his dark dark eyes and ravenblack hair, her favourite teacher used to have the same hair, eyes and scent as him, before the 'ketchup' had messed it up. And deep, deep inside a little voice inside of her, though she had no idea of its existence, told her to run away, get out of here before he returns, while the other one was under the spell of his wonderful perfume.

Sasuke entered Orochimaru's room in his own Sasuke way, not interested and not caring, wearing another one of his impassive attitude masks when Kabuto shot a glare at the boy with the dark dark eyes who was impossible to handle. Even now, when he had taken advantage of his own protector, letting all of his anger out and the girl foolish enough to take it, he still acted so _Sasuke_, and Kabuto somehow got the feeling this kid needed to be distrusted more and more. He was well aware that Kumiko would give up _anything_ to serve her master, yet still he questioned if she would be prepared to give up _him_. Because for some reason, Kabuto had no idea why so, he believed that the two of them shared a bond stronger than any other he had seen before. The idea of all of this was absurd of course, because Kumiko suffered enough with a guy like him, she was just doing what she was obliged to do, that's all.

"What is it," Sasuke said with an annoyed tone like he always does, not really caring it would piss off his teacher or not. This behaviour was something Orochimaru was used to, and if he wanted his body he would have to endure 'the attitude' first. "You're getting stronger Sasuke. I think it's time for a little _experiment_."

Sasuke looked up at his master humming out the words with another one of his despicable smiles, and repeated the word experiment as if not understanding what he mend with that. "You interrupted me, for an _experiment_."

"Don't worry you'll get plenty of time to pick up with whatever you were doing with that little toy of yours. I can't help but, noticing," and he turned his face to look his vessel better in the eyes, but Sasuke wasn't looking at him, "you're getting attached to the girl."

"She means nothing to me."

Kabuto couldn't help but release the slightest chuckle. He answered as cold as always, so it was true. Sasuke wasn't lying. She was just his teacher, his instrument to lessen the fierce boiling inside of him and also the perfect addition of getting a step closer near his revenge, because she would do _anything_ to protect him. But at the same time, Sasuke was realizing he was getting dependable of the girl for if she wouldn't be around, there wouldn't be any instrument to reduce his hatred, and if he'd be faced with his brother one day, he would take him down _alone_, without any help. He needed to maintain his distance with the girl, not constantly relying on her and sometimes accumulate the anger inside of him.

"So anyways, what's this test about."

"Nothing big, you'll only have to fight a few people."

"How many."

"About a hundred." His Lord's smile widened as he noticed still the same expression on the vessel's face. This was exactly what Orochimaru wanted, someone who didn't fear anyone or anything since fear was unnecessary when you know you'll be able to overpower your opponent. And Sasuke was already standing in the doorway waiting for his master to come, and Orochimaru's smile increased if that was even possible.

* * *

It was evening when he entered his room again, and she had moved from the floor till his bed while she knew Sasuke hated it when she slept in his bed especially after such an exhausting fight. Of course Sasuke had won, otherwise he wouldn't be named Sasuke, still, fighting a hundred opponents costs a lot of chakra and energy in general, so poor Sasuke was torn out when he arrived in his bedroom fixing his sharingan eyes on the girl wrapped in his bedspread and her icy blue eyes closed. And despite her overwhelming beauty Sasuke didn't mind waking her up ruder than necessary, and when she slowly opened her eyes enchanting him with that icy look of hers, he felt nothing, and it made him angry. And he thought back at the days he used to spend in the Leaf with Naruto and Sakura, but he felt nothing, only darkness and hollowness aching at the bottom of his chest. An infinite well that could never be filled again. And he got even madder when he realized he was thinking about that in the first place, only by looking at her eyes, referring she had used that jutsu of hers again, the one that was able to look into someone's past and digging into someone's feelings like that was even part of her business. Sasuke knew that this mind-piercing jutsu of hers was one she couldn't control and happened every time you looked her too deep in the eyes, still he was so angry about it he dragged her out of bed by the hair. He hated her, and he hated how even now, her expression was still as blank as before, and he hated how he didn't know anything about her yet he did, because her mind-piercing jutsu had a reversed effect. While she could see the past of that person and could read any of its emotions, that person could see hers as well, and every time she had used that jutsu he saw her past but he had never felt the emotions she felt, because she didn't feel any at all. So just like this time, she just went along with it and didn't show any signs of pain or fear, partly because this pain was nothing compared to the one she had experienced earlier before, and partly because she didn't fear Sasuke, because she knew he needed her, and he might abuse her and hit her and yell things at her, he at least, of all the people, had never looked at her with _those eyes_.

"DON'T YOU EVER SHOW ANY EMOTIONS AT ALL? WHAT ARE YOU, DEATH ITSELF?" He was angry again, and deep inside Kumiko started hoping he wouldn't use her again to diminish that anger. All he wanted was a facial expression on her face, all he asked for was _any_ emotion in those icy blue blue eyes of hers, any sign of life, but how pitiful it may seem that was something she couldn't offer to him, even though it was her responsibility to take care of him in any possible way. She knew she was making him angrier now, and it wouldn't take long before he'd desire the same gratification as before, so she prepared for the worst. As he rested his lips next to her ear, he whispered very softly. "Please, don't use that jutsu again."

Kumiko was confused as he asked this, because Sasuke never asks her anything, she's expected to do it on order, and she wondered if her justu had done this to him, making him a little more human than he normally is. And for once he was actually gentle with her when he pressed himself against her, still holding on to her perfect long brown hair, but at least not pulling it. And instead of asking her to undress him to feel her naked body even closer near his, he only rested his head in her neck and gently caressed her naked back down her bottom all the way down her legs.

"I'm in a bad mood," he told her, but she didn't respond because Kumiko barely spoke, and definitely not to Sasuke. She knew that he was letting her know he needed her, only in his subtle Sasuke-way. He didn't want to scare her, because Sasuke sensed he was at his most vulnerable now having thought back at his memories of the Leaf, and he needed her more than anything now, he needed the protection and everything in addition to that.

"I won't go easy on you."

"You never do."

* * *

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	4. Chapter 4

**- Attention: if you haven't seen episode 90, you won't be able to follow the story**

**Chapter 3: He never looks at her with those eyes**

There was an awkward silence between the two of them, one that could've been cut with a kunai knife, one that wasn't similar to the silences between them before. They barely spoke when they were together, only for training or mentioning important messages from their Lord, although now the atmosphere was being filled with tension Kumiko wasn't used to, because the two of them might not like each other, the silence remaining between them had always been a common, familiar one, one she had grown attached to. He was acting strange, introverted, more than usual, and while she was bad at understanding any emotional feelings of the human, she saw something broken in his eyes. Like and unfulfilled desire he was slowly losing a grip off.

Lord Orochimaru was looking forward on the occupation of Sasuke's body, and that day was approaching and coming closer faster than he would've ever imagined. And that was exactly what caused the unfamiliar tension in the air around them, because Sasuke began to fear that day, and when Kumiko had accidently used that justu of hers again, he remembered how he had pledged towards Naruto he would give Orochimaru his body a thousand times over if necessary, and he was strongly doubting his own words now. Afraid that, if the day would come and his Lord would actually inhabit his body, he might not get his revenge, and then all of this would have been for nothing.

"Focus," she told him and every time she did say something he was always negatively surprised by her hoarse deep voice, how she was so perfect, too perfect from the outside, and every time the girl opened her mouth an overwhelming disappointment annexed the betrayal of her beauty. She wasn't used to the distracted Sasuke, and she had no idea how to handle him either, but eventually Sasuke pushed aside his thoughts and decided to focus on his training, because training was necessary to defeat Itachi and honestly, he couldn't wish for a better teacher than the Survivor of the twins herself, possessing a three-double amount of chakra locked away in that petite body of her.

As she was showing him how to stack up an amount of chakra at the bottoms of your feet, he couldn't help but think back at one of his first trainings with team 7 and Kakashi Sensei, and he remembered how he and Naruto sucked at it and Sakura was finding herself at the top of the tree after just one try. This was different though, he was better now, stronger, and so this was effortless. He started wondering what this useless training was all about when she pointed at the other peak of the hill, miles away from here. She raised her hand and pointed out her two fingers, because she preferred using sign language instead of real words, probably to hide that ugly voice of her.

"What do you mean, two," he asked, already irritated and not even having started.

"Two minutes."

"Tch," he chuckled in his very own Sasuke-way, one Kumiko was most familiar with. "You're kidding me. That's impossible."

"It's possible in one minute," she said coldly, one of the longest sentences she had ever used when she talked to him. He wished she would continue in sign language. "You stack up an amount of chakra at the bottoms of your feet and release it once running. You'll create a turbo unseen to the human eye."

He didn't like it when she talked this much, like she knew everything. He liked her more when she just shut up and blindly kept her nose out of his business as well as his training, but he needed Kumiko, because she was a powerful ninja, in fact one of the most powerful he had ever admired. And so, when he sent a proper amount of chakra at the soles of his feet with a simple handsign, she had already taken off and Sasuke glanced at the trace of ice she was leaving behind, the only thing he was able to see since she was so fast. He activated his sharingan to watch her movements, but even his sharingan couldn't keep up with the speed she was performing which pissed him off so he pushed him off and started running too, trying to release the chakra at the bottoms of his feet just like she had explained with that repulsive voice of her. And because of his anger he released a too great amount of chakra and he burned his own feet and tripled on the floor. Kumiko was already at the other top of the hill when she saw it happening, sighed and flashed herself to the spot where he had fallen, but when she wanted to heal him he first hit her in the face. "If you'd given me more explanation with that sickening voice of yours, this wouldn't have happened!"

He was angry again, as always, always when he wasn't able to use a new technique from the first time, and then he always blamed her for that, because she was his teacher, and she should say more with that repulsive voice of her. And although she knew he wouldn't cooperate with her medical justu she grabbed his feet and healed them anyways, and apparently the pain was intense enough since he didn't reject it this time. "You have to suppress your hatred in order to suppress the release of chakra."

"Easy for you to say, you don't have any hatred! You don't even know how it feels! You're empty, numb, dead."

She guessed she should be used to it by now, and she should praise herself lucky for not having any feelings because his words would probably sting like needles. "Again."

He pulled himself out of her grip when she was ready healing him and stood up, performing the same handsign as before and taking a deep breath. It was all about focussing chakra, just like Kakashi had taught him, just like Sakura was so good at, only releasing it, just like Naruto was able to walk on water, it was combining the loose ends of all those years of foolish training at the academy back in the Leaf. Suppress your hatred, and become master of your own chakra.

She watched how he ran off and leaved behind a trail of flames caused by the lightning coming of his feet. He grew stronger every day, and every day was a day closer to become Orochimaru's perfect vessel she realized. She had longed to be his perfect vessel, and it had hurt when she discovered this man, still a kid, was the one to replace her, yet now she was questioning if she still wants it that desperately. Even now, when he called her repulsive and empty, numb and dead, she felt an overwhelming feeling of taking care of her ward, and since this feeling was unknown to her, she had no idea of its existence. Sasuke was his perfect vessel, Sasuke she would protect now instead of her master, because her master had obliged her to do so, so Sasuke would come first, then Orochimaru, just like her Lord wanted it to be. Sasuke Uchiha, the man, no, kid, who had stolen her purpose of becoming Lord Orochimaru's perfect vessel. Sasuke Uchiha, who had given her a new one.

* * *

He was watching her playing the piano, one of her life-long passions. Orochimaru had given her the piano for her birthday, a birthday present Kumiko hadn't received in years, and although she wore that same impassive mask as she always does, inside she was happy knowing that someone still cared about her enough to buy her a birthday present, because she had forgotten long ago when her birthday was. Even her darkest Lord enjoyed listening to the classical melodies flowing out of her graceful hands as her fingers discovered a harmonic path down the keys of the instrument, even Sasuke enjoyed it. Her talents were far beyond her level of experience, she was one of the best pianists he had heard in a long time. Sasuke was tired, and he longed for his protector's warmth again, but the angelic symphonies roaming around filling the atmosphere made him suppress that need and watch her a little bit longer as she was showing relaxation for the very first time. If only her voice was as beautiful as the compositions she was playing.

As the symphony was coming to an end, Sasuke walked in and closed the book with music sheets when she was about to play another song. Her enchanting melodies had come to an end, and so Sasuke wasn't possessed by it anymore and wanted what he had come for in the first place. She had heard him all along of course, what kind of ninja would she be if she hadn't, but she noticed something different in his eyes. He seemed so much more patient and less angry than usual it actually frightened her, wondering if something had happened to the one she was supposed to protect, because if anything might happen to him it meant failing at her task of protector and failing at the task her master had ordered her.

"I've had a long day," he spoke while stroking her hair out of her neck and softly caressing it as she was still sitting on the stool behind her piano, her fingers still resting on the keys and ready to play another one of her songs she had written herself. But her hands had to wait she realized, because Sasuke had had a long day, and Sasuke needed her right now, like he always did when he had a long day, and so she would fulfil his needs. Sasuke wasn't waiting for her answer because she never talks very much, instead he was waiting at the door for her to come like she was obliged to do, and after some lingering silence she stood up and walked out of the room, followed by her hungry ward picking up the fear in her eyes, a fear rarely seen in this girl's eyes but yet present. From all the people she should fear, an undefeatable girl like her, she feared her ward Sasuke Uchiha, the avenger of the Uchiha clan, a _kid_ she could go head to head with and demolish easily. It sure was flattering.

He didn't close the door when he entered his bedroom after her, he barely does these days, giving the other followers of Orochimaru a chance to peek. She wondered if it turned him on or if he simply didn't care, not like she does probably, because honestly she found it humiliating keeping the door open while he was busy with intruding the private parts of her body, but if Sasuke preferred to do things this way who was she to complain about it. After all, keeping Sasuke pleased was her ambition and purpose, and nothing else. And he was already working his way out of his shirt when they were finally alone in his bedroom, because Sasuke was longing for this more than anything. The robe around his waist followed as he held Kumiko close to him and gasped in her ear.

"Undress yourself," he asked her, and if Kumiko knew how to pull a confused face she'd do it right away. Sasuke had never asked her to undress herself, not in the way he asked for it now at least, because every time she had to undress herself it was because Sasuke wanted to get it over and done with quickly, but now he wanted to watch how she did it. His grip over her arms loosened as he pushed her off gently so she could commence with his desire, his eyes more hungry than ever before yet still amazingly calm and caring. Where was this Sasuke coming from all of a sudden, she asked herself. He fixed his eyes on her when she stepped back and unravelled the sash around her tiny waist, revealing the paleness of her skin and exposing every inch of her naked body, and it made him hungry and excited when she continued sliding the panties off of her perfect short legs since she was such a short and fragile girl herself. He worked his way out of his shorts as well and seized for his swollen limb, she only standing there looking at him as she was always looking at him, and although Sasuke wanted to see _any_ facial expression on that way too perfect face of hers, he was too busy right now to care as he grabbed her in his arms again and pushed her closer and closer, until he pushed her on her knees and she knew what to do next. She preferred oral sex, because the normal one hurt every time. This one hurt too sometimes, when he was too rough again or the cursemark covering of his entire body until it burned the inside of her mouth and tongue, but it was better than the normal sex, it was a start.

He was more tender than usual, it only took her a single touch when he backed his head at the wall behind him, groaning louder than usual and more desperate for her to start than usual. But since this was only the start it didn't take long before Sasuke hit the wall he was standing against with his fist causing a deep crack, though Kumiko was used to it and so she wrapped her hand around his hardening first, gently pulling back and forth, until her lips touched the tip and he tensed back as the tension was reaching higher and the cursemark had begun to spread over his neck, face and chest. She noticed how he closed his eyes and tried to urge it back, wondering why, because the only one dealing with the consequences of his cursemark was her, and why would he care the slightest bit about her when he thought of her as an object, a weapon, a shield and a toy. He did manage to urge it back but he had activated his sharingan and he was staring at her with those red eyes of his when he grabbed onto her hair and pushed his hardening deeper in her mouth and it felt great so he released a satisfying moan and longed for more. She felt amazing, better than she had ever before, and he was losing all of his coolness when her head went back and forth on the exact rhythm he wanted it, because she knew Sasuke from the inside and out, and she knew which rhythm he liked the most.

"Look at me," he gasped, and so she stared back into those burning red eyes of his while she continued, her icy blue eyes nearly freezing him if that was even possible since he was burning inside. Flashbacks of other moments were being played like a movie in front of him as he watched the opposite wall of his room, moments he had shared in this very same room with her, and he looked back at them remembering how he had hurt her with that cursemark of his and his rough movements and not even caring if she was in pain or not. She had used that mind-piercing jutsu again, and when he fixed his eyes on her icy blue ones once more, he felt nothing but regret and sorrow for the girl he saw as an object, a weapon, a shield and a toy, because she was a human just like him. But when temperature was at its highest level, Sasuke felt the aching flame inside of him getting stronger and with a last catch of breath he came inside of her without any warning, because he had been this paralyzed the whole time he hadn't even feel it coming. His muscles relaxed once the semen was released and he reached for air.

She tensed back after he had come and ran to the toilet in his bathroom, vomiting every last bit of his sperm because it tasted gross and she didn't want to swallow it like last time, when he wanted her to swallow it, so now when she had been able of getting the chance to run to his bathroom she did. The mirror confronted her with a girl with icy blue eyes and a pale pale skin, when she remembered that that very girl standing in front of her was her, and not Kaoru, her twin sister who was deaddeaddead because of her and who looked exactly like her. And outside of the bathroom Sasuke was still standing against the wall just like how she had left him, out of breath and paralyzed. She wondered if she had done something wrong or if he had had any pain suppressing that cursemark of his, because if so it would be her fault because he had suppressed that cursemark for her and only for her, not for him at all. His eyes looked scared, frightened, his teeth clenched and his body shivering, like he had a cold or something. He was keeping himself up by clanging onto the wall, because if he wouldn't he'd hit the floor for sure. She could leave him like this, but Sasuke was her ward, Sasuke was important to her Lord and so to her too, and so she couldn't leave him like this. Pleasing her ward's desires was her ambition, her purpose.

She covered herself with a towel hanging at one of the racks in his bathroom, a towel he already had used once and wore that same cloak of familiar Sasuke-smell, cinnamon and smoke, apples and sweat, and so Sasuke. Her hand slid down his bare chest in an attempt of calming him, and his eyes betraying panic shifted to her impassive ones, the ones that didn't reveal anything but a broken girl lost in her own misery. He was scared, scared to death, and he needed to leave _now_, before anything else could happen, before she would come any closer, before he'd become attached to this girl, the girl he saw as an object, a weapon, a shield and a toy he had felt a moment of regret and sorrow for, but which had now faded grey as he watched her in the eyes.

He pushed her away harder than was necessary, and rushed his way out of his room, leaving her behind like he always had done after using the girl, and she laid down on his bed again and wrapped herself in that wonderful Sasuke-smelling bedspread of his. Even now, even when he was afraid, angry, panicking or whatever, even then he never looked at her with _those eyes_, and that was something she appreciated about Sasuke, and maybe, just maybe, her feelings, the ones she had no idea of their existence, of not hating nor liking the boy slowly developed into something more than just not liking. Maybe Sasuke did something to her no other human had ever done to her before, and that was remembering her how it felt like to be wanted again, even if it only were for a purpose like this. As long as she was his protection, as long as she had to take care of him, she'd always have another purpose in life than simply protecting him, and Kumiko relaxed by acknowledging the idea and fell asleep like she always did after he had used her.

* * *

"Tell me do you prefer white or red camellias? They don't lose their petals, the whole flower falls off, the nuts can be pressed for oil, and the tree itself makes very good charcoal."

"You shouldn't be here, go home."

"Go home. I'm not sure where I would go home to. Maybe you can tell me, is this where I'm supposed to return to? I don't know, it doesn't feel right somehow. This isn't where I'm supposed to return to. But really, you wouldn't know that would you. See, do you have a home then?"

"I have nothing like that."

"Yukimaru, here you are," Kabuto called. "It's time to go. Sorry to bother you."

"Bye Sasuke, see you later!"

The kid was weird, just like she was, that's quite normal since Yukimaru had grown quite attached to Kumiko. He couldn't understand why, from all the things Kumiko was she wasn't a warm-hearted mother with a kind smile, making you feel home and safe in an instant. Yet, the kid liked everyone, even Kabuto, the one who stuffed him up with drugs causing terrible headaches and whatever the side effects were of those pills, Sasuke honestly didn't care. He couldn't understand what Orochimaru wanted with this boy either, for he was as good as useless, no great abilities, no real value, so Sasuke followed them a little bit longer, having concluded the boy was as simple-spirited as his appearance. Kabuto leaving Orochimaru's hide-out even if it only were temporary might come out handy, in fact it was a great opportunity to set off the plan he had been working on in his head. So the boy would be of any use after all.

"It's almost time..."

Over the past few weeks and months Kumiko had become an obstacle to Sasuke, and a very hard one to overcome as well. Maintaining his distance, restraining his anger and that while continue training with her was difficult, and it had only taken him three days after coming to her on his knees longing desperately for her to suppress his needs. His hatred towards her increased with every single day passing by, just like the hatred he was bearing towards his brother, although it was another sort of hatred. He hated his brother for killing their entire clan, for being always the number one Uchiha at everything, for digging the hole in his heart deeper and deeper until there was nothing left but darkness and a single ambition called vengeance. He hated Kumiko because she made him yearn for her body, because he was dependable of her abilities and strength, for being such a perfect, too perfect, fake fake yet extraordinary young woman with an angelic pale skin and icy blue eyes which pierce right into your mind forcing you to look back on your past so you would never be able to forget and definitely to forgive yourself for your mistakes. She was annoying because he knew nothing about her yet everything, and she never told anything about herself or showed any sign of life, but on the other hand neither did he. Why talk about feelings, get to know each other if the only thing keeping them together is a cold, callous bond maintaining use and abuse. He only needed her because of her body, he didn't care about the hideous monster called her soul inside of her, because her soul and mind were the least of his worries. He had allowed himself to lose it one time, because of her eyes looking so innocent at him as they always do, using that jutsu of hers again as she always does. He hadn't done or said anything about it because he had been pinned to the ground due to those icy blue eyes, and he _had_ to leave before anything would've happened. That wouldn't happen again, the girl meant nothing to him and she never would.

Still after that moment he had gotten softer for her, not gentle, gentle wasn't Sasuke's style, but more or less still softer than usual. He got used of noticing a pale-skinned girl sleeping in his bed wrapped around in his Sasuke-smelling blankets, because he could tell from the look of her eyes, even though they never betrayed much, that she liked his smell and had grown familiar with it. It were one of the abilities Sasuke possessed, seeing the slightest touch of humanity in her eyes, meaning she felt something after all, she wasn't as dead as he though her to be. That's why Kumiko started liking him only a bit more, as far as liking someone goes according to Kumiko's way. She was a necessary tool for Sasuke's plan that was broiling in his head, and she had no idea of it but soon she'd find out about it. Still, there were some loose ends Sasuke needed to work out. Kumiko served him because she serves Orochimaru, and if he wanted his plan to succeed and his beloved protecting-angel to follow him, he still needed to figure out how he was going to get a grip over the girl and manipulate her to do so. Or maybe, just maybe, despite Kumiko would give up _anything_ to serve her master, she wouldn't be prepared to give up _him_.

* * *

One of those silly thinks Kumiko enjoyed was watching the clouds passing by on their way to the other side of the world, playing games with her as they were all overwhelming her with the question 'tell me what I am, how do I look' and Kumiko liked telling them, because even clouds deserved to know what they are, and maybe even clouds wanted to find out whether they have a purpose or not. She'd been getting a lot of days off lately, and she'd finally discovered how to spend them without the constant urge of training popping up in her mind all of the time. The transference was getting close she knew, and so her master needed preparation time with his about-to-become host, therefore her help and knowledge wasn't acquired.

"A hawk," she whispered as another cloud passed by and asked her how he looked like, and it looked exactly like a hawk, this much it could be some sort of bad omen. But a shadow blocked the sunbeams tinning her pale pale skin as she had just told the cloud her answer, and when she looked up she watched back at his raven black hair and dark dark eyes, nevertheless he watched back at her with a senseless face just like hers.

"You shouldn't be here. Too much sun is bad for your skin."

What did he care about her skin, what did she care about it. If she'd get burned or an irritated skin so be it, at least she'd feel another kind of pain after all those years except for the one he caused her. He knew she wasn't about to listen, to care or to move over to the shadow of the tree, he had no idea why he told her this in the first place. Maybe because one of Kumiko's features of her beauty was her skin, and he liked her skin. It smelled like the ocean, it smelled like fresh air, like freshly-cut grass and a touch of sweet cherries brushed like paint on her shoulders because of her shampoo, and slightly a faint touch of cinnamon and smoke, apples and sweat, making him wonder where that smell came from. Why the hell was he fantasising about her smell in the first place.

He dropped himself on his knees and bowed towards her face, gently stroking her way too soft cheeks up to her small yet perfect, too perfect lips, which felt cold, so cold he actually thought they had died a long time ago. And if he looked her any closer in the eyes there was the possibility of undergo another one of her mind-piercing jutsus, but somehow, he had no idea why, he was willing to take the risk to look her in those icy blue eyes again. He wondered if she had inherited them from her mother or father, just like he had inherited his eyes and hair from his mother, just like his brother had inherited them from his mother as well, when he remembered a woman and a girl looking exactly like her only carrying the name Kaoru who had penetrated his mind several times before. They were her mother's.

"You're bleeding," she whispered with that hoarse voice of hers when she caught eye on the bleeding wound on his arm, the blood being absorbed by the badly applied bandage, definitely not Kabuto's work, he must have left angrily again without having gotten any proper treatment for that wound.

"It's nothing." He was too busy with caressing her, he didn't care about the wound that actually was stitching and more painful than he thought it would've been. Okay, it didn't look good, and it could definitely use some healing, but Sasuke didn't know that from the moment a wound starts separating discharge it actually was infected and most likely to become a scar. For once he just wanted her to say nothing at all, enjoy the calmness around them and absorb each other's faces, not to use that repulsive voice of hers that ruins everything of her beauty.

But Kumiko was worried about her ward, he was too precious to her to maintain a scar for life, because that would mean a scar for her Lord, and lest we forget Kumiko hated blood, lectured herself it probably was some spilled ketchup, god she hoped it was ketchup. Her eyes were fixed on the blood as she remembered how it had decorated her fake fake daddy's face once, the one with the ravenblack hair and the dark dark eyes, the one that looked a lot like him, and she had hated the decoration and she wanted the thought of a Sasuke with the same face covered in redness to go away and she wanted to scream and beg her Sensei to come back and not leave her dying in her own grief and sorrow like so many –

She grabbed his arm with more fierce than he had possibly imagined her to have, clanging onto it and almost massacring it and what the hell did she think she was doing?! She got up and bent down next to him as she was removing the badly applied bandage until a revolting ugly wound was being exposed, red and leaking with blood and an infectious sticky substance, Sasuke still not getting it was that big of a deal. He didn't want her to heal him, he didn't need her, at least not for these kind of circumstances, what did she know about healing, nothing, nothing at all compared to Kabuto, number one medical ninja he was supposed to pay a little visit after receiving this wound during training, but Sasuke was too obstinate to give into the pain. He preferred one hell of a scar.

What followed next was out of the blue, and he only watched as stunned as he was at the girl's pink tongue sliding down from elbow to hand, licking the wound as if it was nothing, sucking away every last drop of blood and pus until underneath the used-to-be deep scar appeared a new baby-skin and the wound simply faded away by one simple touch of her cherubic tongue. She didn't care how disgusting the wound looked like, healing it was of far more importance than thinking about how repulsive his wound was, besides she granted the idea of absorbing the human blood of Sasuke and become one with it, taste the bitter hatred and pain in it and maybe one day be able to understand all of this. His blood tasted salty and ferruginous just like she had imagined it to be, and when she opened her eyes again watching back at his overwhelmed ones, she seemed numb by his Uchiha-blood and her icy blue eyes looked more innocent than ever before. And how disgusting it might have seemed, she could do this all day if she wanted to.

He grabbed the knife tied around her thighs with a bandage, she always carries a knife, always around her thigh, that was one feature why he liked her, somehow it made him hungry when he saw the shiny metal wrapped around her leg telling him to come closer and place his hands around it, place his hands around her legs and between her legs. Slowly the knife pierced in his skin and pulled another line of blood down his elbow up to his hand, because the part when she comes with her tongue to the centre of his hand that's when he enjoyed it the most, that's when moaning and longing for more was allowed. The blood dripped down and coloured the green grass red, and he painted with the remain of his blood still sticking at the point of the knife a red line on his throat, because she knew his throat was another one of his sensitive spots just like the palm of his hand. And again without any hesitation her tongue tracked down the same path as the knife, again leaving behind a fresh pink skin and he moaned even deeper when she licked away the blood in his neck. It made him wonder how it'd feel to kiss her, while he had never thought about that before, and while he would've been furious by now like any other time when they shared intimate moments together, he seized down between her legs and pulled out that knife again, and he cut himself again even though it hurt a little every time. It was worth it, it felt liberating, he wanted more, he couldn't stop, he forgot about everything, got pulled away into another dimension with only her by his side. He had even forgotten about his older brother who he wanted to kill so desperately, and about Orochimaru's transference coming closer.

It was worth every single cut.


	5. Chapter 5

**- Attention: if you haven't seen episode 47 – 52, you won't be able to follow the story**

**Chapter 4: he never knows how to feel about her**

His Lord was late again, supposedly he should've been used to it by now, it somehow reminded him of Kakashi sensei, but Orochimaru wasn't the kind of teacher to 'get lost on the path of life' like Kakashi. No, instead of hurrying his way back to him, because he knew all too well how difficult of a child Sasuke was when it came down to patience, his new sensei walked in at his own pace followed by – of course – annoying Kabuto and another guy around the same age as Sasuke only weirder and with an even more annoying face than Kabuto. Whoever this guy was, Sasuke didn't like him, and as far as his interest towards his sensei's little present he brought along goes, Sasuke didn't care either. Whether he was from the Leaf or the Mist or the Sand or whatever, he'd still look strange. Sasuke could only hope the guy would change clothes or wear anything else as long as it covered everything of his despicable body, it's not like anyone wants to see his stomach. It's not like Kumiko wants to see it.

"So, I presume, you're Sasuke Uchiha. My name is Sai –"

"Get lost." Why the hell was he still smiling, can't he just leave.

"It seems I'm the sort of person that people don't like right away even if I wear a smile. Naruto took an instant disliking towards me as well. However, I have a funny feeling that you and I will get along better than I did with him."

Who did he think he was, saying something like that. Getting along with someone like him, not even in a million years. He got angry again, activated his sharingan for no good reason, well actually there was a reason, just not a good one. He was annoying, Sasuke enjoyed scaring the boy, didn't care Kabuto would get angry again, because his Lord didn't mind, he found it amusing as well, probably smiling that that body with such good sense of humour would soon be his.

"I don't care about this guy. Come on Orochimaru, let's go."

"I've heard a lot about you, from Naruto. It seems he's been searching for you all this time for three years now."

_Leave me alone._ "I remember someone like that... Orochimaru, let's go."

"You mean a great deal to Naruto. He thinks of you as a brother. At least, that's what Sakura told me."

"As far as brothers go, I have only one, the one that I must kill."

San or Sau or whatever the guy's name was, whoever he might be and whatever his purpose is of coming here, Sasuke would never like him, he wouldn't even grant him a look and he'd definitely not allow Kumiko to make any contact with the shinobi. Sasuke answered always insolent, he didn't care about a thing, but one thing Sasuke was very good at was being jealous, because the girl was _his_, his his his and no one else's, and since her beauty was so overwhelming, permitting to enchant any man walking past her, Sasuke needed to seclude her from the world and any other male human being.

"You shouldn't use you sharingan so recklessly all the time Sasuke." His master's humming voice had become a vexation lately, Sasuke got more and more irritated by him, but he needed to be patient if he wanted his plan to work. He needed to wait until the very last moment, when the time was right, when the transference was at its closest.

"I'd been thinking about making our guest feel a little bit more comfortable, what do you think?"

"I don't care."

"Sure you must know if he'd like to have some company, a little bit of distraction, some _entertainment_."

"How should I know, ask so yourself."

This was fantastic, this was exactly what Orochimaru wanted, heartless, no mercy, it made him excited, he smiled wider than ever before as the young man walked inside the training area. Soon, yes soon, all the preparations for the transference would be ready, soon that body would be his. He needed to wait until the very last moment, when the time was right, when Sasuke will be at his strongest.

* * *

"You know come to think of it, wasn't it always your dream to become the Hokage? All of the time you've been chasing after me, would've been better spent in training, wouldn't you agree Naruto?

But this time, my whim is telling me, to finish what I started." –

She had no idea what was going on outside, although she heard some odd noises from time to time, echoing through the dark corridors of her master's liar, and at a sudden moment there was the sound of something collapsing. It was making her crazy, while her job was to protect her Lord's perfect vessel, she couldn't leave her room until the rumour was over and Kabuto would come and get her. She couldn't understand it, if it were spy-shinobi, Akatsuki or whatever there's left on this pitiful planet, there wasn't anyone who could defeat the Survivor, not Kumiko, she had destroyed an entire village for god's sake, so why did her master want her to stay out of this now, just when her ward was having the good possibility that he might hurt himself. Sasuke was strong, stronger than most men of his age, but not strong enough yet to face the world on his own, he was too naive for that, still too much of a child to understand human behaviour. This was killing her, how long was this still going to take? Why wasn't Kabuto here yet? How's Sasuke doing?

She couldn't help it, she had to take a peek, only a little one, only finding out what the rumour was all about, only finding out if her ward was still unharmed and alright, although Orochimaru had forbidden her. Her research didn't last long though, since she only had to open the door when Kabuto appeared out of nowhere and narrowed his eyes to the girl that was about to leave even though she had been told not to. _Those eyes_.

"You were told not to –"

"How is he?" Kabuto lifted his glasses and mocked the girl for being so overprotective and worried all of a sudden. Her icy blue eyes never betrayed much emotion, unless it came down to Sasuke, then it almost looked like those blue diamonds of her were sparkling, not that the girl realized it nor understood this. She might say so she doesn't feel anything, Kabuto knew that although it never seemed so the girl actually had emotions and feelings, she had them but she just wasn't familiar with them and had no idea how to express them. He knew that, partly because of his examinations on the girl, and partly because it was only a matter of judgement of human nature.

"Don't worry about him, let's get you out of here before more Leaf shinobi come."

"Leaf?" she gasped.

"Yes," and he turned around to take a look at the girl who stayed right where he had found her, while she was actually supposed to follow him on their way out since Orochimaru didn't like to be kept waiting, neither did Sasuke. "Is there a problem?"

"No..." Her thought wandered back at those times when she had used her jutsu on him the first time, when he was just a boy and had come to Orochimaru for power, always roaring about wanting to kill someone Itachi, and she had seen a headband with a Leaf-sign on it, and the next moment the same headband with a crack, being dropped next to a boy with blond hair. She knew Sasuke was from the Leaf, and if these people who had invaded her master's liar were Leaf shinobi, that meant they were here for Sasuke. Maybe it was the same blond kid as in Sasuke's memories.

"Come on Kumiko, Lord Orochimaru won't wait forever." He turned around expecting her to follow which she did. Lord Orochimaru didn't like to be kept waiting, neither did Sasuke, she was only wondering which one of the two she didn't want to keep waiting the most.

* * *

He looked cold. Cold and sad, angry and lost. Just like his skin which looked cold, a pale skin, not as pale as hers and hers not as pale as her Lord's, still a cold pale skin calling out for warmth. She didn't know anything about him and therefore she didn't trust him, so she promised herself she would protect her master till death if this boy, who looked so innocent yet full of hate, would ever be able to kill her. What was so special about him Lord Orochimaru went through all this trouble of transporting him, because in her eyes he only looked like a kid with raven black hair and dark dark eyes. Now Tayuya was dead, Sakon was dead, Jirobo was dead and Kidomaru was dead. Her teacher Kimimaro was dead, and that all thanks to this boy which was no more ordinary than any other kid.

He only sat there for about half an hour by now, staring at the other side of the room, crawled together with his arms around his legs, sitting on one of the beds. He looked tired, deep dark circles decorating his eyes, Kumiko had to find out, she had to know who he was in order to protect her master. And when she came closer, he didn't look at her with _those eyes_.

She looked cold. Cold and sad and broken. Just like her skin which looked cold, a pale skin, paler than his but not as pale as his Lord's, still a cold pale skin calling for warmth. She was probably about the same age as him and why the hell did Orochimaru offer a girl like her a roof over her head, food and protection, while this girl was no more ordinary than any other kid. Her eyes were frightening though, such icy blue eyes he had never admired before, and although they were frightening, yet they were amazingly beautiful as well. The beauty was strong enough to overpower the fear, and so he glared back at her, she from behind the door and he wondered if she'd turn pink if he'd stare back any longer. When she walked in he noticed how her legs contained the same pale skin as her face, and she stared back at him with a face almost waiting for something to happen. _Why isn't he looking at me with those eyes? Why isn't he afraid just like all the others?_

When she touched his forehead with her index finger a shock of electricity went all the way up through his spine, causing an enormous pain and he shouted when he suddenly found himself back in the Leaf. Sakura had hit Naruto in the face, Naruto was the same knuckle-head as always, Kakashi sensei was reading Make-out Paradise, they were on a mission and Naruto was screwing up again and everything seemed so _familiar_. Everyone else was there too, waving at him, Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, all the Hokages, all the Leave shinobi, they were all waving at him and smiling and – Itachi. His mangekyou sharingan, he remembered how he had ended up in the hospital, the intense pain. Mommy and daddy were laying on the ground, deaddeaddead, their entire clan was deaddeaddead, and suddenly he found himself in the classroom without headband, Naruto standing on the desk in front of him as they were exchanging hatred with each other in the form of electricity, a former classmate of them accidently bumped Naruto. He saw how all the girls were looking angrily at Naruto and ready about to kill him. He was sitting at the back of his elder brother, they were in the living-room, he poked him in the forehead, he was at the dock with his father, he was in the kitchen with his mother, he was playing with his toys, he was speaking his first words, he was taking his first steps, he was in his mother's arms and crying for the very first time –

She had let go of him when he returned back to the real world, out of breath though, staring back at her icy blue eyes who had been watching him all the time and had seen right through him, every detail of his past, and her facial expression hadn't changed from the moment he had first seen her. They had exchanged memories, for he knew everything about her former life as well, and although it was selfish he couldn't help but feel relieved he hadn't been the only one with such a burden weighing on his shoulders. Honestly, she had had an even worse past than him. And while most people would be scared to death by now and run off, he touched her face to look even better in her icy blue eyes. _He isn't looking at me with those eyes. He isn't afraid like all the others._

Innocent as it might've seemed, it was from that moment on the two of them had been connected by a bond, strong enough to make her want to sacrifice anything for him. They stayed like that for a little while longer, when Orochimaru walked in, smiling as always seeing the two of them together being adorable yet fucked-up as they were when they were younger. He too had seen the strange connection they shared with each other, and he found it very interesting, who knows maybe even useful. After all, his perfect vessel needed protection, right? He took a seat and watched the two of them together, Sasuke still enchanted by Kumiko's eyes.

He was under a spell. Not figuratively but literally, because Kumiko was, apart from being an excellent and skilled nin- and taijutsu ninja, mostly skilled in her speciality genjutsu, allowing Sasuke to keep comfortably calm and humble while she didn't even do it on purpose. They were both kids now, about eight years old, both of them adorable lovely children and both of them had already felt blood on their hands. Her face was round now compared to her refined, elder one. Sasuke couldn't keep his eyes off of her, being a child like him suppressing those innocent feelings of childhood-love in his stomach, like butterflies tickling the inside of your stomach, chuckling and telling you to go for it and tell her how you feel about her. She was so so pretty and he wished he could stay this young forever, the only problem back then being eating food you don't like or not receiving any new toys. She was so so pretty and he wanted to kiss her and so he stole a little kiss on her cheek, turned red and hid his face behind the teddybear he was holding in his hands, one that he used to carry along everywhere when he was little for his brother had given it to him for his birthday. She was so so pretty and –

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

The spell was broken and as soon as their eye contact was lost Sasuke returned to his real age of twelve years, holding the girl's wrist with his hand, shivering by the genjutsu she had been using on him. The last thing Sasuke wanted to remember was his childhood, because life was so less complicated back then that it made him angry it was this complicated now. Orochimaru was sitting on a chair near the door, enjoying the show, mocking him as it were, and you could see how a plan was slowly being formed in his sick brain only by looking at that revolting smirk of his. During all of this she hadn't moved any muscle and she still looked as impassive as always, while he was out of breath and freaking inside. She looked as impassive as always, except for her cheeks which had turned pink. He swallowed. He wondered how her lips would taste like.

"Seems she likes you Sasuke, you're the first one in two years. Congratulations."

Orochimaru stood up and left the two of them alone, still smiling as he always does, because this was very entertaining and to Lord Orochimaru's liking. This was the reason why he had taken the girl in long ago when he had found her, he had planned this from the very first beginning, and knowing she actually felt attached to someone after all those years of feeling nothing at all, made Orochimaru happy.

"You're pretty..." the six-year old Sasuke said while hiding his face behind the teddybear. Kumiko was still of normal age and so the boy was shy to explain his feelings towards the girl since she was so much older than him, and how adorably cute he was when his cheeks turned red adding a nice colour to his face. "Do you... want to hold him?" He held out the teddybear, offering her one of his most valuable possessions and looking in her icy blue eyes which looked so cold and dead, and he wondered whether her lips would taste like death itself or if they would taste like the ocean, like fresh air, like freshly-cut grass and a touch of sweet cherries, because she smelled like that. He wondered how he smelled like, but maybe she could tell him one day, one day when the time will be right, she'd tell him alright.

"His name's Ponche, but I'd like to change it into your name." She examined the doll as if it were an interesting piece of advanced technology, and it made her think back at her own doll she used to carry along to the shopping hall, school, friends.

"But then your teddybear will lose its identity," she whispered while staring at the bear who was staring back with _those eyes_. Why, why did they all stare at her like that?! Even this bear! Stop looking like that! –

The teddybear's plastic eyes turned into ice and it started spreading over its entire stuffed body, shattering in her hands falling down on the bed like rain on the ground, the ice slowly melting and being absorbed by the bedspread covering the bed. The young boy panicked and tried to save the remain of ice-crystals, in vain of course, it only melted in his hand, and he didn't like the pretty elder girl anymore, yet still when he looked at her, mad as he was for killing his best friend, he didn't look at her like those villagers from the Hidden Mist used to look at her. Only one glimpse of her eyes and he had forgotten about teddybear Ponche who was now deaddeaddead just like his family and just like her family. She was so so pretty and he wanted nothing more but settle himself in her arms, closing his eyes and on his way to dreamland haunted by her wonderful smell of freshness and sweetness. He fell asleep in her arms eventually, exhausted by the justu she had been using on him all along, as the twelve-year old Sasuke Uchiha.

* * *

"WHY DID YOU STOP ME?!"

"Calm down Sasuke, we're safe now, no need for you to overexaggerate."

"I'm overexaggerating?! You shouldn't 've stopped me! I could take them down with one blow! Why did you – !"

"Enough!"

His Lord was about to hit him in the face, when she suddenly flashed herself between the two of them and stopped their Lord's hand. He narrowed his eyes towards the girl who had just blocked his hand, this was part of her job of taking care of Sasuke, still there was something in her eyes that Orochimaru didn't like. It made him doubt she had stopped him because it was her responsibility to take care of Sasuke, or if she just wanted to protect him because he was_ him_. She seemed more determined than ever before, and Sasuke was angry she had interfered, this was his fight and only his and no human, not even _her_, should disturb their fight. It wasn't that which made him this angry, it was because he believed that if this bond of them, strong as it were, would increase any more, he would never have the chance of defeating his brother himself without her interrupting. This wasn't part of the plan he had been working on for so long, he'd have to come up with a plan B if he wanted to face Itachi on his own.

"Let go Kumiko." As soon as her master made clear his desire she fulfilled it and let go of the hand. The tension in the air was thicker than usual, everyone could feel that and everyone behaved like that, she needed to seclude Sasuke for a bit if she wanted him to regain his coolness or this would end bad. But the young man had already left, stubborn as he was, first hitting a wall of the new hideout before going to his room. Kumiko sighed, he was angry again, she should follow him now probably, for the best, because now was the time he needed her the most. And now was one of those times it would hurt the most.

She hadn't entered his room for a second when she was being pushed against the wall and his fist hit it right next to her head. He was breathing heavily as always and when he looked up he activated in all despise his sharingan when his eyes met her face as senseless as it always had been, and he was having more than enough of it. She will show emotion, she will feel true pain and she _will_, for once in her life, beg him to stop.

How could she know. How could she know that this would probably be one of her worst nights in life, not as worse at the nights she had spent with her deaddead parents in the hammock of course, still worse enough to never forget it. Sasuke was in full control of his hatred and this time he definitely wouldn't go easy on her, no, he would be even less merciful than ever, and he would enjoy her screams and cries if only they would be released by a senseless girl like her. And he pushed her on the bed and ripped her clothes off, struggled his way out of his and didn't bother any foreplay because foreplays were unnecessary, all he wanted was to let go of his suppressed anger and she was the only medicine for that. And maybe, just maybe, deep inside Sasuke was too much of a coward to face the fact he actually didn't want to hurt her, for she was as precious to him as he was to her. The only question was when would he admit it. He smirked when he saw the fear in her eyes, glad he had succeeded his goal, knowing this was only the beginning. There was more yet to come for this girl with innocent icy blue eyes, she'd be even more scared when he was done with her.

She widened her eyes when he penetrated her in the most painful way she had ever experienced before, he was even rougher and harder than usual, and worse of all he was actually enjoying it. It hurt like hell, making her want to scream but screaming was not her style so she kept staring blindly at the ceiling when he thrusted deeper and faster and more painful than usual, when suddenly the cursemark started spreading out and – he was transforming into level 2.

He had succeeded, she was panicking, startled and looked him in the eyes as in please please don't do it, but he wouldn't take gratitude with her eyes, he wanted to hear those very same words from her lips. It was the first time in three years Kumiko was thinking about how to push him away, how to go on the run or how to make him stop. These eyes of him were even more frightening than his sharingan and please please please stop it –

He continued though, moaned and groaned because it felt so good, at least it felt good for him, Kumiko constantly had to remind herself she was doing this for her master, she was doing this for him, but it hurts so much she can't take this anymore –

"Sasuke," she cried out and a tear rolled down her cheek, "please, stop it."

Mission accomplished, although he was confused and looked up at her eyes which had showed him a tear for the very first time, and god it was strange seeing Survivor Kumiko Nakamura cry like this. "You're asking me, to stop?"

"It..." She hated admitting it and she hated disappointing her ward, but any more of this she couldn't possibly handle. "It hurts."

"You're naive," he smirked when she just had told him the most compelling confession in her life. "That's exactly why I'm not going to stop."

She screamed when he penetrated her even deeper, if that was even possible, and she tried to push him off and crawl out of bed but he only hit her in the face and the more she was thwarting the rougher he was on her, piercing his nails in that wonderful smooth milky skin of her, leaving behind a trail of blood. He enjoyed her screams and cries, just like he had imagined them to be, and he wanted more and more and this felt so great, she felt so great that he couldn't stop himself anymore even when the real Sasuke inside of him was telling him to stop because he was hurting her. The anger was too strong, the hatred he felt towards this girl was too great to neglect and he had, he _had _to do this if he wanted to get rid of the anger.

He came inside of her, if you could call it that way. Whenever Sasuke was in level 2 it wasn't a normal substance of white sticky sperm, instead it was black and sour and it burned like hell inside of her, it'd only be a miracle if she'd ever be able to have children after bearing so much damage. Fortunately he was pleased now and dropped himself on top of her, tired as he was from the intercourse, closing his eyes and resting his head between her two breasts when the cursemark was slowly returning at its normal spiral form in his neck. She was shaking and still crying, too shocked and too much in pain to move probably, he should do something he thought to himself, only he was too lazy, she could move for herself. Come to think of it, it was rather funny how the invincible Kumiko Nakamura, Survivor of the twins, was now shaking underneath him only because of a little amusement as this one. Well, he could at least do her the favour of getting up so she could run away more easily, and so he did, but instead of running away the stupid girl stayed right underneath him as perplexed as she was, still staring at the ceiling and it made him wonder something had been written on it.

"Well?!"

She didn't move a muscle.

"What the – What the hell is wrong with you?!"

She could run, she could scream, she could hit him, why wouldn't she do so? She guessed she should be afraid of him, after all the way he was looking at her was most frightening, but somehow she wasn't, and she pushed herself off to place her nose in his neck and smell a faint scent of cinnamon and smoke, apples and sweat, and in the distance a glimpse of the ocean, fresh air, freshly-cut grass and a touch of sweet cherries. Even now, even when he had hurt her mentally as well as physically, she wanted to remember this pain he was causing her because it felt so familiar to the pain she had felt five years ago, it made her remember she was alive. That, and Kumiko was too weak to hit someone when it came down to Sasuke, because his smell was so wonderful and so nice and so Sasuke. When she looked up at him, her face turned back to her normal numb expression, he looked her confusingly in the eyes and had swallowed his own tongue. What the hell was she doing this wasn't part of his plan he didn't want her to – how would her lips taste like... He bowed forwards and inhaled the warm breath she was exhaling, shivering like he was having cold but actually he was freaking out and what the hell am I doing?!

"Sasuke," and Kabuto rolled his eyes when he fixed them on both Sasuke and Kumiko, naked, in bed, and he laying on top of her. Really, again? But this time it looked like Kumiko's injures were more severely than usual. Oh well, not like it was his problem. "Your sword's all fixed up, you can pick it up yourself."

Kabuto had come at the right time, yet Sasuke still growled when he heard Kabuto's annoying voice and when he saw that same annoying face he wished he was already able to use mangekyou sharingan to use some genjutsu on the annoying brat. But instead of that he stood up, as undressed as he was leaving his room and so Kabuto threw some pants in his hands and told him to wear at least these. It was always the same song with Sasuke of course, he didn't care about anything, not even the girl he was simply leaving behind broken as she was. Not that this was any of Kabuto's business, but Kumiko still was a marvellous, gorgeous girl and she was kind of attractive and with all respect, whether you're the Sasuke type or the gentleman's type, you don't leave a girl crying after having sex with her, do you?

"You're okay Kumiko?" He noticed her red eyes and shrieked, Kumiko never cried, and now she definitely had been crying. When he took a seat next to her on the bed she followed his movements, finding it awkward someone actually asked her whether she was doing fine or not, the first time in quite a few years. Kabuto was nice sometimes, when he wasn't experimenting on her, sometimes. And Kabuto, from all the people, had to admit her body was quite attractive, since he had seen it dozens of times at the operation room and when he had interrupted Sasuke and her, and now for example, except from the several scars. He rubbed her back in an attempt to comfort the girl, slid down his fingers over her soft skin, stopped at the height of her breasts and couldn't help but fantasise how she might feel like. He placed his lips next to her ear. "You know, I'd go easy on you if that's what you want," he gasped and her back tensed because this was Kabuto and so so wrong and no that's not what she wanted at all, she just wanted him to leave because Kabuto was a man and just like any other man he only wanted one thing from her. But when she pushed him away he got mad and grabbed her hair to fix his eyes better on her roundings, and just when his hand was sliding down from her small breast between her legs he felt the cold metal of a kunai knife resting in his neck, making him stop immediately.

He was angry, really really angry because Kumiko was _his_ and no one else could touch her not even the right hand of his Lord, and if he could he'd kill him alright, but Sasuke needed Kabuto for a little while longer and so decided to let him live. The medical ninja stopped for his own good, he knew that what he had done was risky, he knew how she was his property and no one else's, he'd be lucky if he'd get out of this alive.

"If you touch her any longer," and out of anger the sharingan awakened, "I'll kill you."

He ran off as soon as Sasuke had spoken those words, pathetic as Kabuto was, and she looked at the boy who had become a man in full admiration, how he had managed to suppress his anger because she knew that was very difficult for him, when something else crossed her mind. Why did he care Kabuto was about to abuse her?

"What are you looking at?" he asked in his very own Sasuke way when she was glaring at him. "You should take a shower."

She wanted to ask him, but that was only asking for trouble which she didn't want, not now when their moment of connection was at its strongest, so she stood up to leave and hurry to the bathroom, when an intense ache between her legs enforced. Whatever Sasuke ejaculated when he was in level 2, it hurt horribly.

"Oh and Kumiko?"

She turned her face when he was calling for her, while he was still staring at the door through which Kabuto had fled.

"Happy birthday."

* * *

**Sorry if I confused you with the genjutsu part where Sasuke turns into a kid, if you don't get it, I recommend you to reread it, for i'm not going to explain. I put several hours in my writing so I ask you to write me some reviews as a support! Greetings, ShadowOfSelfDestruction **


	6. Chapter 6

Name: Kumiko Nakamura  
Date of Birth: 12 December  
Age: fifteen years  
Chakra nature: ice (water)  
Birthplace: Land of Water, Hidden Mist Village

Length: 5 feet  
Weight: 81.5 pounds  
Haircolour: light-brown  
Eyecolour: blue

_Ninja information_  
- Level: chuunin  
- Experience: 8 years  
- Jutsu type: gen jutsu  
- Jutsus: substitution, escape, healing, koorigan (visual jutsu), mind-piercing, rasengan, transport, a thousand ice-needles, ice tsunami, wind hurricane, wolf fang avalanche, ice armor, ice shield, ice area, soul transference, water dragon  
- Missions: three A-ranks, one B-rank, seven C-ranks, thirteen D-ranks

_Bounty: 370 million Ryo_

* * *

**- Attention: if you haven't seen episode 113 - 114, you won't be able to follow the story**

**Chapter 5: he never kisses her**

"Sasuke?"

"Hmm?" When he opened his eyes he was being faced with her icy blue ones, while she was staring back at his dark ones, total opposites as they were, just like his chakra nature was fire and hers was water. Naturally she had a rare chakra nature, ice, since her sister used to have wind and their chakra natures had melted together. Yet still complete opposites, except for their pale skin which was generally the same and god she looked beautiful in the morning, even though there wasn't any sunlight in their Lord's dark hideout.

"You never talk about home."

He narrowed his eyes when she asked this, useless as the question was. "That's because I don't have one."

"That's not what the blond boy told me in your memori–"

"Why are you asking me this anyway, we never talk about anything in particularly."

"I... Who's that girl with the pink hair?"

"... You already know her name, there's no need for me to answer."

"But, what is she to you?"

"What?"

She stared back.

"I... She's... Why are you asking me this stop it already!"

"Do you like her?"

"I, no, I don't like any of those people living in the Leaf! What is wrong with you, it's barely morning and you're already annoying, could you just shut up for once?!"

He hated it when she talked, since she had such an ugly voice and every time she uses it all it spoke was nonsense that didn't make sense and this whole conversation didn't make sense because they never converse in the first place! And she was so so annoying just like the Sakura she was talking about, maybe even more, but damn she was so much prettier than the Sakura she was talking about. And why, he wondered, why was it that, even though Kumiko was a lifeless piece of shit with a fucked-up past and probably also a fucked-up future, he wanted to know so badly how her lips would taste like, or was it just her enchanting smell causing this curiosity? From all the things, it couldn't be her smile since he had never seen her smile, neither had she seen his, nor did he want to see it in the first place because after all, both of them lived in the dark now, and in the dark you weren't supposed to smile. She was so so annoying and it was _her_ fault he was so angry and _she_ was the one who made him feel so strange and she –

As she was lifting a finger towards his mouth which was slightly open, she gently touched his lips and caught with the top of her finger a touch of saliva, and he swallowed when she led it back to her own lips and brushed away the saliva with the tip of her tongue, enjoying every aromatic flavour of it as it slowly left its taste in her mouth. And although most people would consider this gross this particular move actually turned him on since she was enjoying this so much, since she liked the taste of his saliva and since she was already seizing for more and he willingly opened his mouth a little more to make it easier for her. He grabbed her hand when it returned for a third round when he felt the body part between his legs hardening, his eyes fixed on hers when she finally dared to meet him, ashamed by her actions and lack of self-control. And since she had stolen some of Sasuke without permission, Sasuke wanted to steal back a little of her as well, so all she could do was make things up and cooperate when his fingers searched for her mouth as well, also tasting the saliva he had stolen from her and take in the taste of it, wonderful as it was.

"Cherries," he responded resolutely by looking her straight in the eyes, her icy blue ones not able to suppress the slightest release of confusion. "It tastes like cherries." He watched her with questioned eyes, asking her the same question as she had asked him, and she responded with a little gasp, almost unable to say anything with that hoarse voice of her. "Cinnamon."

"Why is it that you talk so much all of a sudden?" he asked, numb as ever.

"I... I don't know."

"You shouldn't, it ruins your beauty."

She blanked her eyes rapidly as the words were flattering her, only she had no idea it had. Sasuke was nice, sometimes, when he wasn't angry. Maybe, just maybe, Kumiko could actually feel more towards this young man than only 'I don't like or hate you'. Maybe someday, she could simply allow herself to think of him as 'okay'.

* * *

He liked watching her bathe, washing her milky soft skin with a washcloth and a little jealous he wasn't the washcloth, and her soap, that damn soap of hers that smelled so good it was almost dangerous, a sea-fresh shower gel and a cherry-creamed shampoo. And although she only washed her hair with that seducing shampoo of hers, her shoulders spread the same enchanting scent. She washed her legs gracefully as they were, slid to her thigh up to her belly, her breasts, her neck, and stopped at a sudden point where her face turned sour as she softly touched the tender spot at her back. All she could do was massage it for a moment, a healing-jutsu wouldn't make any good, it wasn't a wound, only an aching muscle as it always had been, and it wasn't like anyone was going to take hold of the pain.

He walked in the bathroom and watched how her naked body was painted flawlessly in the water, a perfect silhouette with the right proportions and shadow which gave the painting more depth. He had never seen her bathe before, but it sure was worth seeing, the way how certain drops rolled down her back to gather back into the water was almost teasing, for he was standing over there with tight pants, it made him think about turning his head and going back, but there was something in her eyes, the way she was looking at him, that told him to stay, though he had no idea it was there. And so he took a seat at the edge of the bathtub and lowered his finger to test the heat of the water, and to all his expectations, the water was freezing.

"Your back," he spoke after a while when he realized his lewdness had lowered, "does it hurt?" But she didn't answered because it was none of his business, it only confirmed he had been watching her all along, besides, an aching back was none of his concerns either, she was the one who needed to protect him from pain and not the other way around. She just wanted to be left alone in her freezing bathtub, the water at the exact temperature just how she liked it the most, remembering the painful memories for she used to have shared a lot of baths with her fake fake daddy when she was little, and she remembered how she could play in that bathtub for hours but her parents wouldn't allow that of course, but the memory slowly faded when she watched him in the eyes, because that was a long time ago and her parents were gone as well as her fake fake daddy. Crying had become a waste of time.

"Move."

She looked up at his determined face, expecting her to make room, but why would he ever take a bath filled with freezing water together with a dispassionate girl as Kumiko? But Sasuke couldn't be talked out of this, and he was already removing his shirt when she watched him, the first time actually realizing his body had become more of a man as well, the first time actually realizing he was quite muscled for being only a sixteen-year old boy. "I said, move."

As she awoke from her thoughts, seeing how Sasuke had removed the remain of his clothes as well, she shoved forward and sat by as the water rose when Sasuke took place behind her, and she gasped a little when she felt his warm hand in her neck removing her hair first when he placed his hands on her back and started massaging it unbelievably gentle, too gentle for Sasuke. But it did feel nice as she felt how the aching pain slowly but surely diminished with every circle his thumbs drew, and her whole body let go of the tension and decided to go along with this wonderful feeling she had never experienced before.

It was a good thing the water was freezingly cold, because Sasuke felt with every glimpse he was stealing of her firm breasts how his groin swelled, but he didn't feel angry nor had a bad or long day, so he shouldn't feel this way in the first place. She was only to be used as an outlet for his hatred and nothing more, so he couldn't give into his natural hormones, the one of a adolescent. But hearing her moan, even though only a little, for the very first time since she had gotten this relaxed by his hands, made everything a lot more difficult, he had never heard her moan before, and he wondered how it would sound like when they – Forget it.

"A little higher," she gasped when he replaced his hands to move on to the next spot, and when he placed them a little higher, at the spot she told him so, she tensed and clenched her teeth. "That's the spot," she gasped and hid her face between her two legs while Sasuke was having more and more difficulties to control himself. If she'd moan any more this _would_ end bad he knew and he caught his eyes several times from staring at her neck, her breasts, her thighs,_ everything_ and he couldn't control himself anymore, and when she released another squirm he abruptly stood up and left the room, wet and naked, and angry, really angry, because he wanted this so bad but he couldn't have it. Right now he just needed some time alone, a little privacy, because he knew if he wouldn't give his hardening what it wanted he'd feel cranky for the rest of the day, and so he walked to his room, almost running, locked himself up and wrapped his hands around his cock and started moving up and down, fast, really fast, too fast to enjoy it but enjoying it wasn't what he wanted he just wanted to get rid of his swollen limb. It didn't feel great, it felt good enough, it'd probably feel better if she'd do it, but he couldn't think about her, but when he did so he noticed how he enjoyed masturbating a lot more, when the tension reached higher and higher and his hands worked faster and faster, cursing there wasn't any towel at his reach, but he couldn't stop anymore, he groaned and his muscles ached, and when the semen mostly caught by his hands flew out of his body everything relaxed, the temperature decreased and the swelling slowly retreated, satisfied.

The water was turning tepid, she decided to get out of it, wrapped herself in a towel and left her room. She thought about Sasuke, about his hands, how they had felt, good, really good, amazing, and just like the pain Sasuke had caused several times before, she wished she could save this feeling for later as well, since it had been of such short run and why do all good things have to come to an end?

She remembered that tense gaze again when she crossed Sasuke Uchiha down the hallway, he was watching her, looking through her, almost envying her it seemed, as they crossed each other and exchanged faces. His eyes, so dark dark, gazing at her ready to attack any moment. Hers didn't betray any emotion as always, still she could feel the hatred he was carrying towards her, like a cloak falling down upon her shoulders, his lips almost cursing her dead and she felt a cold chill running all the way up to her spine. It had only been two minutes since she had seen the nice Sasuke, but that one had already left. She missed him.

* * *

Why did she have to be so beautiful? Why was it that she was his protecting angel? Why did her past had to be so fucked-up just like his? Why does she have this enchanting power of seducing him just with a simple touch? But most important,

why did she have to be so beautiful.

He'd been standing there for hours, watching the sun set, it reminded him of the Leaf somehow, did he miss it? Oh well, it was just another question he couldn't answer, he should stop asking himself these questions, it was annoying not being able to answer them. What was he actually trying to achieve standing over here, like the sun would whisper him the answers, not in a million years. And somehow, without much to Sasuke's liking, the image of his mother flashed by and left behind a trail of raven-black hair and dark dark eyes in the sky, and he wanted to cry but how could he, crying is weak. But this tear, a weakness as it might've seemed, this tear couldn't be stopped, and it rolled down his cheek and got absorbed into the ground, the sunlight being reflected by the liquid and offering him a sparkle of hope. The darkness, a strong and powerful side, chosen freely by the ones that practise it, yet maybe, just maybe, not as strong as the light. Choose the path of light, smile, feel free, feel like you're doing something right for the very first time and what the hell am I thinking?! He needs this darkness, it's the only way, the only manner to destroy the one he hates the most, the one who had killed his entire clan and destroyed his life forever, Itachi Uchiha, his brother.

She didn't need to ask him, because she knew what he was thinking about, it was something he'd been thinking about a lot lately, she knew Sasuke thought he was ready for it, she understood he wanted revenge on his brother, but she doubted she was ready herself for letting him go. Lord Orochimaru would take over his body soon, from that moment on it wouldn't be Sasuke anymore, but Lord, and thinking about using this name towards a boy with raven-black hair and dark dark eyes was almost aching. She had grown attached to him, she realized, when she took place next to him and stared at the last glimpse of the sun, but instead of enjoying its last light and warmth his face was being turned towards her, and he watched how the wind blew her hair and caressed her pale pale skin and _why did she have to be so beautiful_. They didn't need many words to understand each other, they had spent three years together, side by side, and she had always been there for him when he needed her, and had he ever repaid her? No. Because he was a lousy, selfish coward who didn't think about anyone but himself, and here was the hardest part. He did think about her. Day and night, from the moment he woke up, fantasising, daydreaming, enough to make him confused or distracted during training and that had to stop, because no matter how strong their connection was, it was one that was destined to be shattered one day. So maybe, they had to enjoy the remain of their time together.

He pushed her on the ground and kissed her neck, the grass softly tickling his nose, and he enjoyed every bit of cherry-scent her hair was spreading, he enjoyed how she was overwhelmed because Sasuke never needed her when he wasn't angry, so why all of a sudden now he did? As he stopped, staring into her icy blue eyes, not even afraid she'd use that jutsu again, she wondered if there was something he was expecting her to do, it was a look she had never seen before, longing, but in a different way, a healthy one.

"Make love to me."

Her eyes widened by the way how he said those words, dispassionate but so so genuine, and she had no idea what to do next, because taking care of Sasuke was her duty but this was different from all the other times she had fulfilled her task. But Sasuke wasn't waiting for an answer, his hand slid up from her thigh to her shoulder and lifted her angelic white dress, exposing her wonderful breasts and panties, and Kumiko's hands were somehow doing the same with his shirt followed by the rope around his waist, while she had no idea this were her hands' doing. While she wanted them to stop, there was another little voice telling her to continue, and her heart raised when his lips searched for hers, almost touching, inhaling each other's breath. She thought about the taste of his lips, if they'd taste like cinnamon like she'd remembered his saliva to be, and she wondered if her lips would truly taste like cherries. They both hesitated since it was so wrong, nervous, but in the end Sasuke kissed her lips and she _smiled_, for the very first time in years, because he tasted like cinnamon when his tongue entered her mouth, a warm wonderful taste and she wanted more of this, and Sasuke confirmed her lips did taste like cherries, just like he had expected them to be.

As their naked bodies caressed each other, sharing passionate feelings they had no idea of, feeling a passion they had forgotten both of them a long time ago because the only passion Sasuke possessed was killing his brother and the only passion Kumiko possessed was protecting her ward, the sun silently decided to give them some privacy and so left them alone at the hill under the tree, a tree supposed to protect them from sunlight since her skin was so fragile. The remain of their embracing shadows vanished together with the sun, and he slid down with his fingers between her breasts, encircling the left one like he was drawing it, when his warm cinnamon-tasting lips covered her nipple and she tensed back a little while he had done this so many times before, so why was it this time so much different and, well, better? A warm feeling filled her as his mouth was working with her breast and his hand now slid between her legs, and for the first time he felt her private spot was wet when he slid one finger inside and she gasped. His hands were overwhelming since this was the first time Kumiko actually felt a pleasure when he touched her, still she longed for more when his finger slowly penetrated her and found the exact rhythm to her liking, and this was so so wrong because Sasuke was doing this to her but it felt so so good. And although Sasuke wouldn't admit, he was proud to be the first one making her experience this feeling and first of all he had managed to make her feel _something_. All his thoughts about Kumiko of being such a lifeless numb kid was now proven wrong, she longed for this more than anything, she just had no idea what she was longing for, but Sasuke's hands touching her the way he was doing it now, she was pretty sure this was what she had been longing for her entire life. He pulled out his finger and touch a spot so sensitive she held on to his naked back and held her breath, at the same time feeling so amazingly good she wanted to feel this her entire life, while also it was getting too much and wanted to stop. Without her doing she spread her legs and Sasuke took place between them, gently kissed the inner thigh and crawled right on top of her, eying her like asking if she was ready, though he knew she wouldn't response or answer with a simple nod, and so he slowly penetrated her and although Kumiko still thought of it as painful, it felt nice at the same time. It felt nice Sasuke was nice, and for once the rhythm he was taking was to her liking and not his. He did have to control himself from not going any faster, she felt so much better when she enjoyed it too, but when she pierced her nails in his back he couldn't stop himself from going a little faster, only a little, and so she screamed a little and everything was lost, he wanted her more than anything now and controlling himself had become impossible. And so he went faster and deeper, and she moaned only louder, and she felt so so good it was impossible to stop now but he felt he was coming so, what now? They had already crossed the line by kissing, should he come inside of her?

He didn't come inside of her, he was too much of a coward for that, but Sasuke didn't want any baby on his conscience, not even if it was hers, and so when he had felt the tension was reaching at the highest point he possibly couldn't have imagined it to reach this high, he had pulled back and pathetic as it was, masturbated until he came, releasing a loud groan, partly because he was satisfied, partly because he found this so so damn humiliating and that while she was watching, wishing she'd look away but no, she stared at the white substance he had mostly caught with his hands. Her icy blue eyes were piercing while watching him and please please look away I don't want you to see me like this, but she came closer and grabbed his hand, held it in front of her and with that same divine tongue she licked away some of the substance while he was watching her paralyzed as he was, because in the meantime he had looked her too deep in the eyes as result being hit by that jutsu again. It tasted different than she remembered it to be, and she kissed his chest but he didn't move, only kept staring at the distance. He wanted to cry, more than anything he wanted to cry so so bad, and before he knew he shrieked and began to cry, her arms embracing him like a child which had lost his doll on the path of going home, so so humiliating but for once Sasuke decided not to care. Kumiko, his protecting angel, angelic as she was, beautiful and strong, was holding her ward like she would hold her own child, and at that moment Sasuke understood why Yukimaru liked her so much, used to if he weren't dead by now. The avenger Sasuke Uchiha, crying in the arms of his protector.

Though it only seemed black shadows in the distance, Orochimaru clenched his teeth while watching his two followers, because whatever they were doing it was wrong. "Why so worried my Lord?" Kabuto asked who was standing next to his Lord like a real Right Hand was ought to do. "It's not like they're doing this for the first time."

"No." Orochimaru was angry and snappy, for once not wearing his common scary smile. "He has done this plenty of times," and he turned around because he couldn't watch this any longer, "but _she_ hasn't."

Kabuto understood his master of course, all the other times before she had never enjoyed it because it was her duty, now she had. It was time, Sasuke and Kumiko had spent enough time together for them to be good, it couldn't wait any longer.

It was time for the transference

* * *

"Of course it's you, I knew you'd come for me."

"There's nothing more you have to teach me Orochimaru. Now you'll see I can be heartless."

"No! I will not allow this to happen! I am the immortal Orochimaru! I am invincible, I will not die here! This will not happen to me, especially not here! I, I am the one who will unlock the mysteries of nature! I am the one who will receive _everything_!" –

She liked combing her hair when she was bored, what else was there left to do for a girl of her age when she wasn't allowed to go outside from her master, and so, she was combing her hair up and down and left and right and in any direction possible, not caring it was messing up her hair because at least she had something to do. Until she heard someone – her master? – screaming. If there were anything to happen to her master her entire purpose would've been for nothing, and the man who had given her it couldn't get harmed, and while she knew she couldn't leave her bedroom, she tiptoed right out of it when she caught eye on her master's open door. She considered the possibilities, preferred to get wacked in the face because of her misbehave than to stay here and know nothing at all, so walked up to it, and when her head peeked in from behind the door, she wished she hadn't done it.

A second later everything was black. A tight grip had taken control of her and he had placed his hand before her eyes and what the hell was she doing here this wasn't part of the plan?! Her master, the man who had given her everything, a new life for god's sake, was deaddeaddead, the same red substance that had once decorated her parents' face was now painted on her Lord, and for once when she recognized this picture all too well she allowed herself to scream and panic within the hands of her ward, the same hands that had killed him, little did she know that though.

"You should've stayed in your room Kumiko!"

"Sasuke," she gasped when she had pulled herself together and suppressed her tears, barely able to speak from the shock her eyes had born. "Is he... dead?"

He didn't answer, because there was no need to. At least she had calmed down now, and so he led her to his room, dropped her on his bed and walked away when she stopped him, pulling his shirt and watching him with the same impassive face as before. She was asking him to stay, only for a little while, but that wasn't according to Sasuke's plan, he had to leave right away and find the others and – _why did she have to be so beautiful_. He had no idea why, but he felt the strong urge of taking care of her all of a sudden, and so sat down on his bed and she wriggled herself in his embrace, absorbing his wonderful scent of apples and cinnamon and if it were for her she'd stay here every day.

Her master was dead. She didn't quite get it but he was deaddeaddead, who knows by Sasuke's own bare hands, the ones that were now tight around her waist. Her purpose was gone, because taking care of Sasuke had been taking care of her Lord, but he was gone now, so, what was she going to do now? She thought about what her master would've wanted her to do, but that didn't help because her master only wanted her to take care of Sasuke. But beside Sasuke, was there anyone else she could go to now? No matter what, she would still continue to serve her master, even after death, and so, she would take care of Sasuke for the remain of her life, till death separated them, whether he liked it or not, because that was Kumiko Nakamura's purpose in life and no one else's. She made a promise to herself that day, swore herself to protect him from any harm and continue her daily duty as protecting angel of Sasuke Uchiha, in any possible way. She'd smell this perfume till the day she'd die for him.

He thought she had fallen asleep and so tried to sneak away, wrapped his blankets around her making sure she wouldn't be cold, but her hoarse voice stopped him from leaving and she looked at him with questioned eyes, wondering why he had given up on being her personal sofa that fitted so nicely, wondering why he had to leave, wondering why she had to be left behind just like all those people in her village had abandoned her. But Sasuke wasn't like any of those people, yet she doubted if he'd leave her like this or not, because Sasuke was still Sasuke.

"Stay here till I return."

She crawled out of bed and was about ready to chase him, when he activated his sharingan and she fell back to bed like someone had pushed her, looking at him like a child so innocent almost like she hadn't any deaths on her conscience. But this was Sasuke's plan and she couldn't come with him, that was too dangerous, even though Kumiko was a strong little girl, he didn't want to risk the slightest track of scar on her perfect milky skin, and so, she had to stay here right until he came back, though he found it more difficult to leave those icy blue eyes than he had imagined. And when he left the room, closed the door and locked it making sure no one would penetrate it, she wrapped herself in his blankets and hugged his pillow when her nostrils absorbed the smell of cinnamon and apples, waiting for him to return. It already felt like a lifetime.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOO

**I made a business card containing information about Kumiko because someone requested it. I guess Kumiko's kind'a popular. Don't forget to review my beloved readers, greetings from ShadowOfSelfdestruction, live updated from Belgium on my first schoolday! (dying) **


	7. Chapter 7

**- Attention: if you haven't seen episode 115 – 116 and 125, you won't be able to follow the story**

**Chapter 6: he never shares her**

"It's you... I knew you'd come. You being here must mean that you killed Orochimaru"

"That's right, but nevermind that for now. Let's get you out of there."

"Haaa, free at last. Thank you Sasuke."

"Suigetsu, you're the first, now come with me."

"What do you mean the first? Who are the other?"

"There are three others. Jugo of the Northern hideout and I'm also getting Karin of the Southern Hideout."

"And what about the third one?"

"Get dressed."

The room was dark and the shadow was sitting at the very corner of the room, crawled together and face hidden between the knees. He had thought she would have left the room but it didn't seem so, and when he walked in the shadow looked up, her icy blue eyes shining like the moon itself.

"You came," she gasped as he came closer and caressed her cheek, and she held his hand and smelled it because the scent of cinnamon and apples had flown a while ago from his blankets she had wrapped herself in when he had been gone.

"Of course I did." Dark eyes met bright ones, she had missed him, more than anything, and she had been worried about him, seeing him now, at last, even if it hadn't been for such a long time, was relieving, but her eyes switched to the figure behind him entering the room as well and carrying an immense sword on his back.

"So, she's the reason we had to make a detour? Never expected you to go through so much trouble for a girl Sasuke."

"She's not just some girl."

"Okay I get it I get it, she's special to you."

Suigetsu watched them awkwardly, feeling unwanted and well, he just likes some attention, but when he cleared his throat in the hope of receiving the slightest glimpse from his new teammates, they just continued staring at each other and god knows what strange things they were sharing, probably things Suigetsu couldn't understand. But when the girl, still a shadow as she was hidden in the dark dark corner of the Sasuke-smelling room, caught some light on her face, his mouth slightly opened when he noticed the beauty the girl was possessing, a very simplified casual look, bright blue eyes, long brown hair and a pale skin, nice small face, a lovely figure and really, really petite. Very common, yet extraordinary beautiful. Suigetsu liked her.

"Well hello sweety what's your –"

Unfortunately for him Sasuke liked her too, and when he wanted to introduce himself properly like a real man, secretly longing for more than just a welcoming-kiss like any other real man, he was finding himself smashed against the wall, being the cause of an immense crack in it and damn, his back hurt.

"You don't talk to her."

"Okay okay, I get you man, you could've said that before –" and he stopped talking when Sasuke glared at him with his sharingan. A beautiful girl she was indeed, but not worth fighting the man who had killed Lord Orochimaru.

"Where are we going?" Sasuke groaned when she talked again, he might've returned for her to come and get her, she still had a repulsive voice he liked to hear most of all NOT. Kumiko had no idea why Sasuke was dragging her down the hallways of this used-to-be Orochimaru's hideout, and she certainly had no idea why a strange guy with funny hair and sharp teeth was following as well, because Kumiko was strong enough on her own to protect Sasuke and therefore didn't need anyone's help. Wherever they were going, Sasuke wasn't planning on telling her, and when sun hit her face for the first time in days, she had to narrow her eyes because it burned, and her pale pale skin was very sensitive to sunlight. Her white dress caught most of the sunlight and reflected it, making her even more beautiful than she already was, but there was no time for Sasuke nor Suigetsu to get distracted by her breathtaking appearance, they had to keep moving because if Sasuke wanted to defeat his brother Itachi _and_ take her along, he needed more than one man to guard her. Partly because he knew Kumiko wouldn't let him face Itachi on his own, partly because he was well aware of the high bounty on Kumiko Nakamura's face, so he needed more than one man to suppress and protect her. He could've made things easier by leaving the girl on her own, after all she was a pain in the neck even though she possessed great powers like the koorigan and chakra of three-double amount, but from the tiniest piece of his heart left in Sasuke's chest, he couldn't leave her.

They'd have to walk all night if they wanted to make it on time, and after a few hours Kumiko got tired, quite normal, Orochimaru had never given her the freedom to manufacture physical strength; she wasn't allowed to go any further than some feet from the hideout, only if it were for training with Sasuke, she could never train much because Orochimaru didn't want her to train on her own, she had to go to sleep real soon and stayed in bed till midday and on top of that Kabuto had stuffed her with all kinds of drugs in rather enormous amounts than good for your health, so yes it was quite normal she was already exhausted after a few hours. Sasuke carried her on his back for the remain of the travel, after a lot of commotion though, pleading she was fine that she didn't want him to but eventually she had given in when Sasuke got mad. Suigetsu found it amusing, an old married couple as they seemed, and at the same time he was jealous, because Kumiko possessed a certain beauty that she only had to swift her hair making men follow her like chasing dogs, even though she never showed any kind of emotion. They arrived at an island eventually, and before the entrance he dropped Kumiko.

"Wait here till I come back."

"But –"

"Wait here."

* * *

"I'll go. Look Sasuke if you need me and if you want me to, I'll go ahead and follow you."

"What are you up to? That sure was a quick change of heart."

"Well after thinking on it I realize just how boring guarding this place is."

"Karin, don't get so close."

"Who is she." The girl with red hair was strange, and she was obviously looking down on Kumiko. Who wouldn't, the way how she was sitting at the entrance, crawled together, lost and abandoned, anyone would look down on her, but not Sasuke, no, and when she caught eye on a boy with ravenblack hair and dark dark eyes her eyes shone, relieved as always he was unharmed and that she could touch his face again. But the girl with red hair somehow shot an angry glare at her when Sasuke touched her face back.

"You never said anything about a _girl_, Sasuke."

"That _girl_, Karin," he interrupted, "is stronger than the three of us together."

"Come on Sasuke, there's no fun in travelling with someone we don't even know. At least tell us her name." Suigetsu was, just like Karin, also annoyed by her. For the first time the two rivals actually agreed on each other, Sasuke decided to tell her name, and although Karin found it strange the girl couldn't tell it herself, they took peace with it and continued to the next stop, Suigetsu more satisfied than Karin, because Karin was most jealous with the girl, not only because she was far more beautiful, but because she had Sasuke, and Sasuke was hers.

"Sasuke."

That revolting voice of her again. They had taken a break, Suigetsu claiming he was thirsty and needed some refreshment, giving Kumiko an almost too easy chance to talk with Sasuke, he should've known better. "Why do we have to travel with these people."

"You need protection."

"But I have to protect you."

"Yes," he stood up and put his sword back in the shed, "and they'll protect you."

"I don't need protection."

She was pretty when she narrowed her eyes, offended as she was by Sasuke's remark, because from all the people in the world Kumiko was one who didn't need any protection at all, she was Kumiko Nakamura, Survivor of the twins, conqueror of the Hidden Mist, and she didn't need _any_ protection. He was underestimating her.

"I don't care," and he walked away to avoid any more lamentation, but to his surprise she stopped him.

"Stop treating me like a child, I've taken care of you for over three years and now you're telling me I need protection?!"

"You're angry."

"I –"

She looked at her hands, confirming this was her body, when he lifted her head and gazed at her beauty, because she was so so beautiful when she was angry it had made him wonder how she would look like was she was sad, scared, surprised, happy. She talked too much, but for once in three years it didn't bother him, and he wanted to see more of this Kumiko, a beautiful face able to form any facial expression only if she wanted to, only if you drove her far enough to make her feel it. But she had no idea what was going on, because she had no idea this feeling inside of her, what she was feeling right now was called anger. Again, Sasuke had been the only one to make her feel this kind of emotion, just like the pain, but why didn't he want her to be on her own and be his only protector, or did he actually think of her as weak? No, not Sasuke, he knew how strong she was and therefore respected her in the same way she respected him, this was Sasuke, apple-cinnamon-smelling Sasuke with the ravenblack hair and the dark dark eyes that stab right through you, his eyes clashing with her bright ones, while their pale skins matched like a ninja and its team.

"You shouldn't talk so much," he whispered. "It ruins your beauty."

* * *

There were certain memories Kumiko simply couldn't forget, some of them more beautiful than others, some of them more painful than others, like the day she walked into her home and found her family dead on the floor, but the memories about Sasuke, painful as they were sometimes, she didn't want to forget. They were precious to her, just like the feeling he was able to give her she wanted to treasure it, whether it was pain or grief or happiness. And based on these certain memories she knew that Sasukke, although he wouldn't admit, felt a longing and sorrow when team Taka was moving forward because it reminded him of team 7 back at the Leaf. She knew that and he knew she did.

She didn't trust Suigetsu, he seemed nice yet not worth trusting. She didn't like Karin because the only reason why she had joined this team was in the hope of winning Sasuke's heart, while Sasuke had given it away a long time ago, about three years ago. She liked Jogu, because he reminded her of herself, strong yet not able to control your own strength, and on top of that he had a better reason than Karin to join this team, also one that reminded her of herself. But she was glad that she was on her own now, because Sasuke had given orders to search for the Akatsuki since his brother was a member of it, and so Kumiko had gone off to the forest all by herself. That was until she sensed something was wrong with Sasuke, and after sensing it an enormous explosion found place not far away from where she was. Sasuke was in danger.

"Kumiko," Suigetsu spoke when he had seen the explosion as well, "are you okay?"

"Sasuke," she gasped, and while Suigetsu was jumping off the tree he had been standing on when he had found her, he only saw a trace of ice and gone she was, off to the place where the explosion had taken place.

–

"You, you used me! Insolence! You damn brat. How dare you do such a thing to me?! Those eyes, you hypnotized me with those damned eyes of yours! Me! You did this to me! How dare you?! –"

"Oh boy, well he's dead now. Hey, wasn't Manda supposed to be Orochimaru's favourite pet or something? You know you really are to treat animals better Sasuke. And not force genjutsu onto them either."

Karin envied the girl, why was she the only one to get close to Sasuke? She kneeled down next to her ward and placed her hands on his face, made sure he was alright like a mother would do when her child had fallen off the stairs, but apart from his serious injures it looked like he was going to be alright. And just when she was about to heal him he pushed away her hands and looked her dreadfully in the eyes, because the last thing Sasuke wanted was his protector taking care of him like a baby in front of his teammates, his teammates couldn't think of him as weak. His eyes were frightening, not as frightening as his sharingan, but since he didn't have any chakra left at all he was too exhausted to awaken it. And although he was shooting her a threatening look, Kumiko was relieved her ward was okay and couldn't stop herself from holding him, he groaned a little since it hurt, but at the same time while she was hurting him he was too much of a coward to push her off. Her embrace felt nice and besides, it only showed how much she cared about him and lately Sasuke had been willing to accept her love as well as his feelings towards her, because he could tell himself all he wanted if this girl would ever die, the remain of his heart which hadn't turned dark yet would die with her as well. She was that little light, sparkle of hope in the darkness, that remembered him how it felt like to live in the light.

They searched for a room in the village and since no one was willing to offer them a free one for one day they rented one with the few money they had. The hotelkeeper refused the small amount of money, pointed at the girl with icy blue eyes and smirked, but Suigetsu only hit him in the face and pulled out his sword, and after some threats the man decided to rent it for half the price. Kumiko started trusting Suigetsu more, it seemed so he cared for Sasuke one way or another, not as much as her of course, but enough to willingly take the place of Sasuke and overly protecting the Survivor, although she had no idea why. But she'd never like Karin because even now when Sasuke was hurt she still played a game with her, who's-the-hottest-and-is-going-to-get-Sasuke. Kumiko decided she didn't like the game, she had already won in fact, she simply didn't know.

He woke up after a few hours by Kumiko's hands, his bandages needed to get changed, and although his view was blurry like any other human in the morning, her eyes were still beautiful enough to invite him to wake up. He wondered where his other teammates were while she was removing the bandage and softly washing his wounds with freezing water, making him shiver while he knew this was the exact temperature she liked the most.

"Where are the others?" It was more painful to talk than he had expected and she shushed him because he was too weak to talk, besides she enjoyed the silence between them, comfortable as it was and reminding her of the time before he had killed Lord Orochimaru.

"Karin and Suigetsu went to buy some food, Jogu's outside." Her voice sounded just like always and although it was as hoarse as always, it was familiar enough to make him forget about it. A thought wandered inside of his head when she washed the deep scar on his arm. "Could you," he hesitated to ask, "heal that?" He was talking about that time when she had used her tongue to heal a scar on his arm, how it had simply vanished after one intense lick, the lick so intense it stimulated every part of his body. From all the things Sasuke could ask, as the condition he was in right now, he asked a silly thing like that, but the worst part, she couldn't fulfil his desire.

"The wound has to be fresh."

She thought he would groan, but he didn't. Not like he used to. He had changed in a good way.

"Could you," he hesitated again, "try?" It wasn't about trying, Sasuke knew that Kumiko meant what she had said, in fact it wasn't about the wound, he only longed for her. Sasuke had changed because of her, he had become soft towards her but only her, because the hatred he bears for his brother Itachi was still increasing with every single day. He cursed himself for that, but enchanting as she was he didn't mind it either, because Kumiko, his protector, was the one he wanted to protect as well, even though she didn't need any, even though he would only get in her way.

"Promise me you won't die."

He looked up at her, she had spoken words he would've never thought her to use in this order, she asked him something impossible, there were certain things in life you simply couldn't promise, just like how Naruto had promised Sakura he'd bring Sasuke back to the Leaf. Silly things like that, and here she was asking him to make a vow on the same silly thing, and even though he knew that he couldn't promise her anything, he did so and stared back in her lifeless eyes and at her dead lips, grabbed her shirt, pulled her closer and invited her lips with his. She tasted like cherries as she had before, and although Sasuke was familiar with the aroma of her lips he couldn't help but smile deep down inside. No matter what would happen to him, no matter what would happen to her, there will always be two facts which will remain true and everlasting: her taste and her smell.

The kiss, which almost felt like a goodbye kiss, didn't last long though, when Jugo walked in with a bird sitting on his shoulder. "We have to go, Karin senses the chakra of other shinobi."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and commanded Kumiko by simply saying her name, because she knew what was to do next, and so she sat down in lotus position, formed a complex handsign, closed her eyes and meditated. She meditated and meditated, until she fiercely opened her eyes, an icy-blue strong glow appearing and Jugo was already hurrying to Kumiko but Sasuke stopped him, because even though this jutsu was most frightening, it couldn't be interfered since it asked concentration and perfection. It was in the meantime that Kumiko's soul had left the body and had hurried towards the woods, scanning the entire environment faster than sound and who knows maybe even faster than light, and after a few seconds she came face to face with that blonde boy who had become a young man by now, from Sasuke's memory, but they walked right through her since she was only a phantom. She recognized the headband, Leaf shinobi, hurried back to where she had come from and once she occupied her own body again she gasped for air until her eyes drowned in dark ones. It was an exhausting jutsu which required a lot of chakra, Sasuke knew this, but just like her he wanted to know whether it were Leaf shinobi or not, and it took Sasuke only one glimpse of her eyes when he simply knew his suspicion had been right. Naruto.

* * *

"Mommy mommy, can we go to the park today? Is daddy coming too? Can I bring a friend? Mommy!"

"Why sure my little flower, daddy's coming too. Who are you bringing with you?"

"I'm taking Choko with me."

Her mother looked up in all disbelieve, for any mother would've thought her daughter would bring a real friend with her, not some old disintegrating ragdoll she had gotten for her birthday several years ago from her fake fake daddy. However it would lessen Aimeko's responsibilities as a mother, for watching over two children was always an even bigger challenge than one. She wondered how it would've been like if her other daughter wouldn't have been taken away from her, how it would feel like going to the park with the entire family while she was keeping herself busy with the firstborn and real daddy with the secondborn, Kumiko, pushing her on the swing and making all sorts of fuzzy airplane sounds. In any case, Kumiko wanted to bring along her puppet, and probably also her bow and arrows because if there was one thing Kumiko liked doing, it was practising archery in the public gardens with Nibori. Her lovely daughter, one that was to grow out to be a strong and magnificent woman one day, was now seven years old, and that meant there was only one year left of her precious, up till now uncomplicated life. Aimeko remembered it like yesterday, it was the first week after her birthday, when a shinobi from the Mist knocked on her father's door, her father turning sour by the news and despite she had never heard what the Jounin had told her father it was obviously bad bad news. Soon afterwards she was being taken away to an area where she met someone. Remembering her face wasn't really hard. But Aimeko was soon about to find out what those words were the Jounin had spoken to her father, she would find it out within the next year and it will probably be one of the most impacting words in Kumiko's life. Kumiko, named after her dead aunt, named after Aimeko's dead twinsister.

Her daughter ran into her arms in an attempt to protect herself from Nibori who was playing crocodile-hunter with her, she smiled lovely as usual as if she couldn't get any more beautiful, and her warm still so short arms enveloped her mother's hips, making her smile. After she practised archery and her favourite master called it for today, she ran to her school friends who just happened to be there too and decided to play with them, of course not without bringing Choko along. Nibori and Aimeko were now able to spend a little time together, and before she knew it he had already stolen a kiss from her lips, making her blush and turn red.

"Nibori," and she smiled uneasily, not really sure whether she should enjoy this or not, "you know you shouldn't do this in public."

"I've had it with hiding my love for you," and yet he was about to steal another kiss from her, but to all his surprises she turned away her head and stopped towards the direction of her beloved daughter playing lovely with the other children, thinking about how unfair life was and asking herself why she, from all the people, needed to give birth to a twin. And although it was hard to admit, although these weren't words you would expect from a mother to think, she thought about a life without Kumiko's twin sister, without her husband, just the two of them and Nibori. It might've seemed a harsh thought back then, but when you picture yourself in Aimeko's position, not seeing your husband for eight years who you had to marry against your own will in the first place, and never having met her own daughter Kaoru, you start understanding her dark thoughts. After all, Aimeko was a Survivor herself.

"It's not fair, is it."

She looked up at him with questioned eyes, wondering if he had used some sort of jutsu to read her mind or if it were simply judgement of human nature. She loved Nibori like she hadn't loved any other man, if it were for her she'd run away with him and her daughter to another village in the hope of building up a normal life there, but being mother of a twin, Aimeko had certain duties towards the village which she was bound to. He himself loved Kumiko as his own, for he had lost his wife and daughter a long time ago. "All I want for Kumiko is to be happy," and he held her hand to catch her attention in which he had succeeded, "I want to fill the gap of loneliness her father left behind, and I want to fill the gap of loneliness you husband left behind."

He had a good way with words, he always had had, it made her smile and almost cry when she watched her daughter laughing and rolling in the grass. "Kumiko," she whispered and clinched onto Nibori's hand like they were pleading an oath towards each other, "no matter what happens, always protect the ones you love the most."

–

"_I will mother, I'll protect him with my life."_

* * *

**I think this is the first chapter within 5 chapters without any lemons, hope you guys can live with that! But I promise you, next chapter is promising! So, someone asked me to make a drawing of Kumiko and my my, what a coincidence, I've made one not a long time ago, BUT, in order to show you guys so, I need to make this deviantart account or something, and honestly I'm reeeaaally not in the mood for that neither do I use that site. Hope you can forgive me, your beloved writer, ShadowOfSelfdestruction**

**Ps: don't forget to review, add as favourite or follow! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 7: he never leaves her side**

Kumiko Nakamura, Survivor of the twins, a three-double amount of chakra, kekkei genkai jutsus most people had never heard of, number one at archery and on top of that an extraordinary musician.

Kumiko Nakamura, the reason why they had to stop.

It was strange Team Taka thought, strange because Kumiko was keeping them up, strange because Sasuke gave her time to rest, even though he was worked up with the idea of revenging his clan, even then he made sure the girl was alright, able to catch her breath. They stopped at a hotel with hotsprings, if they were going to rest anyway, Sasuke wanted to do things good and so paid for three rooms – yes, he paid, it was a thing called proud and respect. Three rooms, not five single ones because five were too expensive, three. One for Karin, one for Jugo and Suigetsu and of course one for him and his ward.

The hotsprings were separated of course, not much to Karin's liking. She, just like all the other girls, wanted to see so desperately how Sasuke would look like when he baths, and on top of that the boys at the other side of the wall separating the two sexes, wanted to see so desperately how Kumiko would look like when she baths. It was annoying, she was annoying because she was so pretty and Karin felt left out, not good enough while normally she's a confident girl who's well aware of her own beauty. The other girls in the pool didn't like Kumiko either, she was weird because she didn't show any facial expression and kept staring at the water without blinking her eyes once. They could try getting along with her, try and make a decent conversation, talk about boys and clothes and travelling because she was a young girl with the same interests as them, but for some reason they didn't, because she was weird, pretty, too pretty to be trusted. Kumiko didn't mind, she was used to the loneliness and had begun to like it, whenever she was alone she was finally able to settle things in her mind, think about nothing and everything at the same time because everyone knows when a girl is thinking she thinks about a thousand things and emptiness. She didn't pay attention to the girls who were talking behind her back, Karin who was neglecting her and talking bad about her to the other girls, she told them Kumiko was only Sasuke's toy and that she was the one Sasuke was really after. The girls were jealous of course and at the same time admiring Karin, while Kumiko would only think about how pathetic life was when it came down to relationships between people and especially the hostility between girls. It was interesting, funny, disgusting and annoying all at once.

Sasuke was angry. They had come to these springs for relaxation, instead of that he couldn't leave Kumiko alone for one minute or there was already a guy trying to take a sneak peek, it made him furious and kick the shit out of these men while at the same time the girls were doing the same with him. He was worried because he knew how people never liked Kumiko. For some reason, an unknown reason that will die in secret once she will, although people were enchanted by her beauty and eyes, they never liked Kumiko, except for him. It was because of that Kumiko felt a connection with Sasuke. That, he had given her a new purpose _and_ he _never_ looked at her with those eyes. But Kumiko had a reason for staring endlessly at the water, it was because all of the girls were looking at her with _those eyes_, and Kumiko was afraid that if she might look at them, these girls would have the same faith as those ninjas back when she was little, the ones she had frozen to death without even realizing it had been her doing. It was a jutsu that she hadn't controlled yet, a jutsu she was most unfamiliar with and she wondered if this was the curse of the Twins, if this was Kaoru's doing.

While she was lost in her thoughts and had wandered to another dimension in her fantasy, a hand suddenly appeared next to her, offering as it were. When she looked up she saw in all disbelief those same dark dark eyes and ravenblack hair, she first saw her former teacher and fake fake daddy when the shape slowly reshaped to that of a younger man with a paler skin and a cursemark at the same spot in his neck as her. He was naked, hadn't even take the effort of wrapping a towel around his waist because those were the least of his worries, all he wanted was for Kumiko to be safe from those men with thoughts that any other young man has when he sees a girl like her. The girls chuckled, turned pink, almost fainted since Sasuke, naked Sasuke, so so handsome Sasuke appeared in front of them, bad boy as he was because he had come to the girl's hotspring and it made Kumiko roll her eyes because it was annoying. Until she saw Karin's humiliating face who had told all the girls that she was Sasuke's girlfriend, while her 'boyfriend' was obviously inviting Kumiko to follow him. It made her laugh if she knew how to though.

He was strong, pulled her out of the water effortlessly and even had brought her a towel along. She wasn't used to the nice gentle Sasuke who thought about her privacy and who helped her out of the water, and so she took a better look at him with her icy blue eyes and he smirked, knowing what she was thinking and confirming it was him alright. The girls moaned and cried when Sasuke walked away holding Kumiko's hand and guiding her to their room. The woman who was supposed to prevent that any men would infiltrate the girl's hotsprings smiled uncomfortably and waved at Sasuke, but Sasuke was too busy with watching his precious. She had tied her hair in a ponytail that swung from left till right as she walked, caressing her shoulders and back since her hair was this long, and of course, _of course_, that cursed shampoo of her that smelled like cherries. It was drawing a trace of wonderful aroma that made any man follow, even when she wasn't trying to seduce anyone she still does, and Sasuke was more tempted than ever.

She was dying inside, going mad by her own questions, wondering whether he had had a long day, a bad day, if he was angry, or maybe, just maybe, this would be like last time, and god she hoped it would be like last time. It was hard to admit, but even senseless Kumiko Nakamura had felt great when he had touched her like that, and although she was most unfamiliar with the feelings of yearning and satisfaction, this was exactly how she had felt back then, and without even knowing she was looking forward to it. Suddenly, they couldn't get in that room soon enough, suddenly the lift couldn't go fast enough and so they took the stairs, and suddenly the door wouldn't lock fast enough. Suddenly, she couldn't press her lips on his soon enough. It was a strange feeling, and she decided to go along with it.

Sasuke wasn't used to this Kumiko, but decided soon enough he liked her. For once she was the one longing for him, and as their lips and tongues met in a most explosive kiss her hands traced down his chest and investigated every pore when her towel, like Kumiko was the one controlling it and had told it to leave, fell to the ground and every effort of separation had now completely vanished. It was dark in their rooms except for the slightest sunbeam coming from behind the curtains, a lovely orange colour filling the inside of their dark alley, but still her blue eyes enlightened like never before, they sparkled and Sasuke wondered if this was just delusion or if this was his doing, because whatever it was Kumiko felt warm, hot against him. His lips traced down her neck and collarbone while his hands had seized for her firm breasts, making her gasp. She was more sensitive than usual but Sasuke liked it, it would mean she'd enjoy it more and so would he.

She wondered if Sasuke was still planning on going easy on her, because he might've done it once but maybe not twice, she wouldn't blame him for not doing twice, they were in the dark after all. While she was only a tool to him it was foolish to even consider the possibility. Sasuke Uchiha, going easy on a girl? Never in his entire fucked-up life. But he was more gentle when his rough hands softly massaged her small breasts, flowing out an incredible feeling that Kumiko liked, and although this was already the second time she shared a most precious moment with Sasuke, this time somehow she was more scared and longed for it more, maybe because she knew how it felt like and god, it felt great. Sasuke felt great. His lips felt great, his hands felt great and his entire body being pushed against her felt so so great and it was the moment that for the first time Kumiko actually _wanted_ something. She wanted Sasuke inside of her.

Sasuke had received the message, after all they shared an unbreakable bond and words were unnecessary to describe what another one thinks, and so after he had placed her on their bed – yes, he willingly called it theirs – his hand slid down between her legs and she felt to all his surprises extremely wet while that's not of Kumiko's habits. Somehow, even though Sasuke had no idea why, he suddenly cared whether Kumiko felt good with this or not, somehow suddenly he did want to go easy on her and make her feel as comfortable as possible and even make her enjoy it. He had no idea why though, he was too naive to even consider he was falling for the girl because really, Uchiha Sasuke falling for a girl? Never in his entire fucked-up life.

It was strange how all of a sudden a kiss could feel so much more than just a kiss when they made love, like their connection was at its strongest when their lips touched. His hands felt so much more special than just simple touches of hands, she liked the warm envelopment of his palms cupping her breasts and massaging the clit between her legs. And somehow, though she had no idea why, his hands felt even better than before, and she allowed herself to moan which Sasuke liked, because her squirms turned him even more on. And while he kissed up his path from her breast to her neck and stopped to confront her with his eyes, she sent him a look that said 'do it', and so Sasuke entered her very slowly because he didn't want to hurt her, he wanted her to enjoy this as much as he did, and maybe even more. She tensed when he entered her but it was a good tense, it already felt great and they hadn't even started yet, and she claimed onto his body, partly because of the tension, partly because pushing his bare chest against her felt amazing. He started thrusting very slowly but since Kumiko moaned so wonderfully pretty he went faster. She felt better when she enjoyed it, and soon when Sasuke had come to a fine gentle rhythm she liked the most he, she felt even better. It became difficult for Sasuke to withdraw himself, her gasps and warm breath next to his ear teased him as it were, like they were challenging him how long he'd be able to stop himself from not going any rougher. But when Kumiko started screaming his name, definitely because this really wasn't of Kumiko's habits, he couldn't stop himself anymore since she felt so so amazing and tight and he _had_ to go faster and deeper. Sasuke had been the only one up till now to make her do that, for once Kumiko didn't hold back and for once she went along with the excitement and the tension their lovemaking was causing. She pierced her nails in his back, had no idea how to feel at the moment because Sasuke was doing strange things to her and making her experience strange feelings she had never experienced before. Like she could make love to him all day if only they could. She was scared it would hurt Sasuke, but instead it made him moan as well and go faster, even more faster and deeper.

All of a sudden it became Kumiko too much, these strange though great feelings scared her and the heat boiling inside of her when Sasuke was moving back and forth was getting out of hand she realized, and so she spoke with the last of her breath to Sasuke to stop. To all her expectations he did so, pulled back and it was a strange feeling how his hardening withdrew from her body, like something was missing and she was already regretting she had pleaded him to stop. Maybe she should've just let him continue, maybe that strange, way too strong tension was a positive one instead of a frightening one. He looked her in the eyes and without saying asked her what was wrong, and she couldn't help but caress his face when those dark dark eyes were laying upon her, disappointed but secretly watching how her perfect naked body was laying underneath him and screaming out it wanted him. Yes, she definitely regretted it.

Sasuke knew that, whatever Kumiko was thinking, she just was scared of the strange emotions and feelings he was doing to her, he had to find some kind of way to make her feel even better and forget about the fright you actually shouldn't fear in the first place. He told her – without telling though – to move, laid down next to her and cupped himself around her, first softly caressing her side and she shivered, kissing her lovely smooth back, shoulder and neck and then move her leg around his waist, massaged her clit again and before Kumiko even knew what was going on he penetrated her again. Her eyes widened because this tension was even stronger and more frightening than the one before, but somehow also better and generally really really amazing. His hands worked fast, he moved fast and it took him only a few seconds before Kumiko was screaming out his name, begging him for more if she'd only be able to speak at that moment. She felt a really strange warmth boiling inside of her and since she wasn't familiar with it, it left her unknown what to do with it now, if she should give in, if she should stop him or simply turn out her thoughts and enjoy every single second of this like it would be their last one. At a sudden moment Sasuke covered her small lips with his hand to decrease her squirms for they were getting so loud the entire hotel could hear it, at the same time he didn't want to silence her, hearing Kumiko gasp like this turned him on, and if he could he'd continue this the whole night, but he was coming. Now what?

He started thinking, although that was most difficult when you're making love to one of the most beautiful girls in history, whether he should continue and just come inside of her, bearing the risk of creating a baby. If he should stop and run to the bathroom, knowing that he'd disappoint both of them because he too would be disappointed when he wouldn't come inside of her. On the other hand there was also the slightest possibility she wouldn't get pregnant, but really, how little was that? Now what.

He had gotten lost in his own thoughts before he realized he was coming, dragged the remain of is energy out of him and pushed himself for those few final times deeper, tensed and grabbed her tight when his back curled, feeling how his semen being released inside of her and god, it felt great. Both of them were only able to breathe heavily, moving was impossible at that moment, besides she liked his hot breath warming up her neck and his warm body pressed against her so why even bother moving. The sun had already left some minutes ago and so now the room was at its darkest. It made Kumiko realize that, even though she had felt several minutes of light and heaven thanks to Sasuke, wonderful amazing Sasuke, her place was still in the dark as well as his. He fell asleep with his arms still wrapped around her, reminding about the first night they had met and how he had fallen asleep in her arms by her genjutsu. His eyes closed and his lips slightly separated, so peacefully how he was sleeping, seeing him like this was like remembering he was still an innocent child that happened to have taken the path of darkness thanks to a fucked-up past and a fucked-up family. It was unfair, so so unfair, all she wanted for Sasuke was to be save, but in the end no one is save without being happy, so she wanted for Sasuke to be happy, but she had no idea how because she had no idea how to be happy herself. In the end, happiness, a vague term as it is, doesn't have any meaning, doesn't have numbered conditions and is different to anyone. Sasuke would find his happiness in his revenge, at least that's what he thinks, Lord Orochimaru would've found it in destroying the Leaf, that blonde boy in Sasuke's memories would find it in the rescue of his best friend, she as well would find it in Sasuke.

She fell asleep in his arms eventually, enjoying the aromatic smell of Sasuke as usual, after staring at that child's face for several hours.

* * *

As she woke up the next day by the sunbeams falling in their room, feeling better tuned than usual, her eyes widened when there wasn't any ravenblack hair to be seen. His side of the bed was empty, his warmth had left a long time ago, his cloths except for his shirt were gone and the towel was hanging at the balustrade of the balcony. She panicked, already taking her position for her soul transference jutsu in order to scan the environment, when her eyes noticed the flower on her night stand, a cup of hot cinnamon tea and a note, a note containing the words: outside, training; and that was all. It was short, without any emotions, and it was Sasuke's, definitely Sasuke's. Small as the note was she could feel how her muscles relaxed by the simple words, knowing her ward was doing fine, and took the rose in her hands. A thorn pierced through her skin but somehow she liked the feeling and sucked away the spot of blood on her thumb like a baby does. She had never gotten any flowers, had never paid any attention at flowers, people said they were beautiful, but Kumiko a beautiful girl as she was herself, more beautiful than any rose ever will be, was unable to aknowledge her own beauty not to mention a flower's. She guessed it was probably a gesture out of love.

She didn't drink her cup of tea, even though cinnamon was her favourite, but she couldn't bear the thought of drinking this cup knowing it was a gift from Sasuke, and so she left it until it ran cold and further, took a quick shower that wettened the very ends of her hair, fixed her hair in a braid just like any other day. It had become a daily routine Kumiko didn't want to shatter, because she liked routines, and you could see by her hands that worked fast and strict that she had become used to it. Braiding her hair always takes long since Kumiko's hair came down till her waist, but her long hair had always been one of those features that made her so beautiful. That, and Sasuke didn't like girls with short hair. She put the lolly she had found on Sasuke's night stand in her mouth after throwing away the packing with the name of the hotel written on it, put on her underwear and thought about putting on her dress until she caught eye on Sasuke's shirt again. Instead of dressing herself she wore his shirt that smelled exactly like him, his sleeves way too long for Kumiko to wear, so long you couldn't even see her hands and since the shirt was open at the front it covered her breasts just enough to be covered decently if someone would barge into the room. It was early in the morning, so who would barge in in the first place?

She sensed other chakra.

"Did he smell something?"

"Sasuke's scent is coming from this direction, Akamaru's getting restless so he shouldn't be too far."

"Sasuke," Naruto spoke to himself, "I'm gonna take you home."

Team 7 and the others stumbled inside the hall of the hotel, Sakura asking in all haste if someone with the name Sasuke Uchiha had checked in, but the woman shook her head and had to disappoint them. Of course he had given up another name, the Uchiha name had come an even greater pain that the cursemark, everyone knew about Orochimaru's death and so also about the avenger Sasuke Uchiha. It had become too risky to use the name and putting Kumiko in danger was exactly what Sasuke was trying to prevent. Kakashi explained how the boy looked like, dark dark eyes, ravenblack hair, sour look, not very tall not very small, when the woman behind the desk turned red and laughed uneasily, remembering the handsome boy and her finger traced down the list of people who had checked in, stopped at the name Kumiko Nakamura and explained them she was the one they were looking for if they wanted to find Sasuke. They didn't think about the name, that it was probably the name of one of his teammates and so moved on up to the seventh floor, stopped at room 3B and Naruto took a deep breath. He noticed how Akamaru was getting restless, Sakura's determined face, Captain Yamato who nodded and so he nodded back. He was ready, as well as everyone else of the team: Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, Yamato, Sai, Kiba, Hinata and Akamaru of course. Every single one of them was ready to bring Sasuke back home.

Sakura built up her chakra in her right fist, hit the door with it and there she was, Kumiko Nakamura.

She sucked her lolly with an impassive face like she had seen this coming all along, turned her head thirty degrees as in asking them what this was all about, watching the commotion as Sakura, that girl with pink hair from Sasuke's memory, hit the blonde one and all the other boys on the head when they freaked out seeing a nearly undressed girl standing in front of them. And to all those boys their expectations, taken away by Kumiko's beauty, every single one of them was disappointed when the angel fallen from heaven spoke her first words. "Can I help you?"

The pink girl stamped in her sensei's stomach with her elbow and he shook his head when he found the power to speak. "We're looking for Sasuke Uchiha."

After she turned around the lolly in her mouth she stared back at Naruto who was staring at her, first overwhelmed by her beauty and now utmost disappointed by her voice, but for some reason, maybe it was some sort of genjutsu, when she walked forward he didn't back off. He had been one of the few who didn't back of after looking her in the eyes, and he had been one of the few who didn't look at her with those eyes just like all the other standing next to him, she immediately decided she liked him.

Her finger made contact with his forehead, Naruto screamed out by the electric touch and what to him looked like hours of horrible torture looked to his teammates like one second, and when he was back to his conscience and looked her in the eyes, he was shocked. This was Kumiko Nakamura.

"Naruto, what's wrong?! Did she do anything to you?!" Kakashi caught him when he was close to fainting, but Naruto was strong, Kumiko knew that now, and he was strong enough not to get belittled by this little mind-piercing jutsu of hers.

"Can you," Naruto hesitated to ask, still not believing everything he had seen but he wanted to find his best friend so desperately he couldn't give up now, "can you take us to Sasuke?"

She made a hand sign as in follow when she walked past the team, Sakura immediately didn't like her, Kumiko couldn't blame her, girls had never liked her for some reason, when she was little she only had male friends, that had been until she had to face her sister in battle.

No one of the team trusted the way too pretty girl who told them to follow her, strange as she was, no one except for Naruto, who stood up and followed humbly, because he had seen her past, he had felt her pain and he knew that Kumiko could be trusted after all she had been through and after all she had done for Sasuke. In the end the rest of the team followed as well.

They walked outside, to one of the fields where people can practise, play sports and where the activities and entertainement take place, the tracking team still keeping distance of her as she walked forward, when they finally caught eye on someone with ravenblack hair sitting on the ground and meditating, his eyes probably closed since his face was pointed to the other side. Naruto's eyes were being filled with hope again when he saw his friend sitting over there and Kumiko walking up to him, and he gently whispered his name when he noticed he wasn't wearing any shirt, that the only thing Kumiko was wearing was Sasuke's shirt, wondering if this bond those two shared was even stronger than Sasuke and Naruto's. Sakura stood beside him and squeezed her friend's hand. This was it.

They watched how Kumiko walked up to him and even though she hadn't made a sound Sasuke had sensed her presence all along, stroke her leg and kissed it, remembering how she smelled like and how she had felt the night before. He could make love to her all day.

"I brought some guests," she told him when she watched his soft lips caress her skin, and although she didn't want him to stop she told him alright, because this was of little more importance than a kiss. He looked confused when he looked her in her icy blue eyes, turned his back and to all his expectations realized it was his former team standing over there, Naruto and Sakura, Kakashi sensei and other Leaf ninja.

"Sasuke," Kakashi spoke, the only one able to speak at the moment. Everyone was too confused to speak, who the hell was this Kumiko Nakamura girl and why was she travelling with Sasuke? "We're here on a mission to take you back to the Leaf."

He chuckled in his very own Sasuke-way, closed his eyes and cursed his precious for leading their 'guests' to him. There was a strong tension between the two groups, the hate boiling inside of Sakura growing stronger with every second she took a glimpse of the senseless-faced blue-eyed girl, she wondered how Naruto had managed to stay this calm up till now, she wondered if Kakashi sensei and all the others could see it too, or rather feel it, that icy cold chill every time you looked her in the eyes, like she was going to freeze you if you'd stare any longer. But by the look of their faces they could feel it too, except for Naruto who almost seemed under some spell by the girl, some sort of genjutsu, but Naruto was the only one who had seen her past and now started combining the loose ends and understand it completely, he was the only one who knew that if you'd look her too deep in the eyes she'd use her mind-piercing jutsu and if you'd stare at her in disgust or fear she'd freeze you from the inside. Naruto knew all of this, and while he should fear the girl for possessing such strange powers she can't even control herself, possessing a rare visual kekkei genkai jutsu such as hers, he did look her in the eyes and he wasn't afraid. He from all the people knew how she must've felt back then when she was little.

Sasuke stood up after several utterly awkward minutes and made his way to Naruto. "Naruto," and he looked up at Sasuke because he had been staring at her all along, which Sasuke didn't like of course. "Why go so far for me."

"Because," and he clinched his fists, "you're my friend."

The words meant nothing to Sasuke.

The words meant everything to Kumiko.

"Friend," he repeated in all despise like it was some sort of incurable disease, turned around and walked away not much to his former teammate's liking. While Naruto had tried his best to stay cool and focused, not to freak out or yell, it became all too much and he jumped up from his place and ran up to the ravenblack-haired boy, but before he knew the same girl had transported herself between them and pushed him off with her bow so he fell to the ground. She might like this Naruto, if he'd lay one finger on her ward she'd kill him. He walked away and left his guests behind with Kumiko, didn't bother to turn around when he spoke to his property. "Kumiko, I leave this to you," and before they knew it he disappeared and gone Sasuke was again, vanishing in front of Naruto's eyes just like before, and why for once wouldn't this mission just succeed! While he had felt sorry for this girl, the only thing he felt towards her now was hate because she had stand in the way and her senseless face was becoming a vexation to the entire team. The blonde boy was already going for a kunai knife in his pocket but his own team captain, Yamato as Kumiko recalled it from the boy's memories, stopped him.

"Wait Naruto," and he dragged him along to win space between the team and the enemy, "you don't attack someone you don't know anything about." But it made Naruto only laugh because he did know everything about her, she also about him so the fact that she knew all his jutsus was a disadvantage, but she didn't know all of his other teammate's jutsus. That was Naruto's theory, Kumiko's theory wasn't knowing your enemy's jutsus, hell did she care about those, it was about destroying him.

"Don't worry Captain Yamato I know all about the Survivor Kumiko Nakamura and I've got news for you: today you'll be defeated by the future Hokage Naruto Uzumaki!"

The word 'survivor' hit Kakashi and Yamato like a knife. If this really was the Survivor everyone in the Land of Fire had been told about, they were doomed, worst case scenario, the Akatsuki showing up to capture this monster and abuse her powers and chakra, because it was well known that the Akatsuki were after this twin as much as Naruto. The stories about the Survivor had been spread all over the country, her powers were legendary and her chakra beyond normal quantity, on the other hand they possessed the nine-tails, this could be an interesting fight, because fight they would.

"Everyone," Kakashi started, "don't look her straight in the eyes." It made Kumiko angry, if they didn't look at her with _those eyes_, they wouldn't even grant her a glimpse, it was always the same damn thing, always those eyes, always fearing her, always the same, damn, thing! The one with the mask removed his headband and there it was, the sharingan, almost mocking her because seriously, only one? She estimated her opponents, there was one jinchuuriki, one sharingan, one healer, one woodstyle, a byakugan, a foundation and a Inuzuka-clan member.

This shouldn't take long.

Her handsigns were fast, but not fast enough for Kakashi to follow them and Yamato to use his woodstyle to attack her, but she simply jumped up and finished her handsign, a waterdragon appearing behind her and attacking the other one Kakashi had summoned. It was spilled chakra since Kakashi had copied the jutsu, she needed to use ice style kekkei genkai jutsus in order to stop Kakashi from copying her, jutsus he couldn't copy, but before she could do that she transported herself when Sakura almost hit her with a chakra fist, she had to shield herself from that Inuzuka's fang over fang and had to freeze some annoying poorly drawn snakes around her feet, all fast because they attacked one after another. They were a well-organized team, stopped the attacks and stuck together immediately to plan the next steps in battle when the blonde one didn't listen and called for his rasengan, ruining the entire plan. With a swing Kumiko cut deeply through his hand with her bow since it was a special combat-modelled one and used her substitution to avoid the jutsu, the girl with purple hair screaming out his name and running up to him but their sensei stopped them, Sakura was the medical ninja and so the only one who should go to Naruto. His entire hand and even the beginning of his arms had been sliced in two, bleeding like hell and of course causing a pain so intense it made Naruto scream and nearly go insane when he watched the damage. "Everyone keep close, she's a long-distance ninja, that means she's weak at close-distance. Let Hinata handle this!"

Kumiko narrowed her eyes, he was wrong, she was both, and when that girl stood in eight-trigrams position ready to use her gentle-fist technique, Kumiko formed another pair of handsigns when a pack of snowwolves attacked her and she was being scattered to the ground in the snow with serious injuries. The next one was Kiba with another fang over fang, obviously he had been taken away by his emotions when he saw his teammate laying like this, you could see it by the inconsiderate attack and the lack of discipline in his attack, ignoring his other teammates and sensei. She simply developed a rasengan in her left and right hand at the same time, hitting both Inuzuka and dog so they were being blown to the other side of the area, unconscious and bleeding. Sakura panicked since she was the only healer and three of them were already down and worst of all in really bad shape. Kakashi, Yamato and Sai were the only ones who remained.

"Sasuke doesn't like to be kept waiting," she said coldly, annoyed that this fight was taking so long but she didn't want any of them to die. Somehow, she had the feeling that Sasuke cared for them deep inside of that black hard of his, that's why she couldn't kill them. That, and this team reminded her of her own team back at the academy, team 4, back when her teammates hadn't abandoned and neglected her, back when they used to stick together and risk their lifes for each other. That was a long time ago though.

"Then we'll make it short," Yamato said and called for Sai who answered with a 'right', draw a bird on one of his scrolls and flew off. Now it were just the three of them. She performed other handsigns, handsigns Kakashi couldn't copy to all his surprise, because this was one of her kekkei genkai jutsus she had obtained by devouring her sister. "Ice style, ice armour," and a blinking layer of ice crawled all his way up to her head enveloping her in a coat of ice harder than steal yet thinner than Sasuke's shirt she was wearing, it was an armour unable to get pierced by a jutsu, it did require a lot of chakra but lack of chakra was the least of Kumiko's worries, after all she possessed a three-double amount of it. And when Kakashi was ready with his chidori, a jutsu Kumiko had seen way too many times before, and Yamato with his woodstyle, she transported herself at a safe distended way and formed other handsigns, Kakashi's eyes widening as he could see with his sharingan what was about to come.

"Ice style, a thousand ice needles."

Thick, sharp and dreadful ice needles fell from the sky upon everyone of them, like Naruto, Kiba and Hinata weren't hurt enough yet, and while Sakura, Kakashi and Yamato tried to avoid some needles and protect their teammates it was only a matter of time before one of them struck them through the leg, an arm, a chest, and so one, but Kumiko never aimed for vital organs, that's right, she controlled every single one of them and knew where they would land needle by needle. They were all pierced through the ground and covered in blood, when the image of her deaddead family flashed before her eyes, and she wanted the thought to go away before she'd lose it, not now when she was winning, not now when Sasuke was waiting for her. She had to continue, had to use another jutsu to be sure they were defeated and struggled her way out of the thought. "ice style, ice area," and a thick layer of ice on the ground was being formed and held everyone in place, being frozen to the ground, too much in pain to fight their way out of it and their only medical ninja was hurt and frozen to the ground as well. She should finish it with an ice tsunami in order to kill them, but to all their surprises she didn't, turned her back and walked away when that foundation member attacked her out of nowhere from the sky, a stupid thing she had forgotten about all along and needed to be finished with. He had managed to scratch her shoulder, and went for another attack when she pulled out and arrow and stretched her bow to fire it, an innocent weapon as it might seem, deadly in the hands of an ice style ninja. She aimed for his right shoulder because she had noticed how he had drawn with his right hand, at least he wouldn't be able to draw anything anymore, and he fell from the poorly drawn bird to the ground. She used a genjutsu on him so he wouldn't be much of a problem anymore and left them, hearing the last screams of teammember Sai as he was under a terrible torturing genjutsu, stroke the scratch on her shoulder and when her finger had polished away some of the blood she stared at it for ages, hoping it just was just some ketchup or other red liquid and though it was a deep scratch it hadn't hurt her. She wondered if everyone would survive, especially Naruto.

She didn't make it far, that ice armour had drunk her entire chakra and since she had been so busy with other jutsus it hadn't last for longer than a minute, allowing the foundation member to injure her, and so when she was at safe distance where everything was getting black and turning, she lost conscious and fainted, the green grass and soft ground catching her like a warm bed, but instead it were Sasuke's arms catching her for he had ran his way up to here as fast as he could by stacking up his chakra at his feet and releasing it as lightning just like she had taught him. She was so so tired but so so happy once she recognized that smell of cinnamon and smoke, apples and sweat, it made the thought of the red liquid and her deaddead family go away and she wished she could stay here forever. Only that wasn't according to Sasuke's plan.

* * *

**Next chapter will probably take a little longer. Be warned! Reviews + favourite, ShadowOfSelfdestruction **


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 8: he never says goodbye to her**

"SAKURA?!" and he looked around and panicked, his stupid hand which had been nearly separated hurting like hell or maybe it was just the sight of the blood of his comrades who were close to dying. "Hinata?! Kakashi?! Kiba! Sai! YAMATO! ANSWER ME!" But no one answered, no one looked up and no one moved. Like the angel who had fallen from heaven, that easily had they been defeated, Naruto realized that even after all his years of training he still was too weak to bring Sasuke back, even worse, he was even too weak to protect his comrades. If he weren't this weak right now he'd willingly let the nine-tails take over his body, anything as long as it would defeat the angel, as long as it would revenge his comrades, but he doubted if he would ever be able to kill the girl. As much as she was a killer, she was also a human who happened to have a fucked-up past, neglected by the other villagers while she couldn't do anything about it. It reminded him of himself, still, understanding her actions seemed impossible.

"Naruto!"

He had never been happier in his life seeing Jiraiya Sensei and Grandma Tsunade.

–

"I want you to leave."

Her back was turned towards him, and if he'd see her face she'd probably widen her eyes. He didn't want her around him anymore, not because he was tired of her or something, it was for a much more important reason, also a reason he couldn't tell her, because telling her would make her believe he cares about her, and that was something he wanted to keep a secret. The reason was simple, he couldn't bear the risk of bringing his ward along when Madara Uchiha was after great chakra, furthermore she couldn't get pulled into this fight. And as much as he hated to admit it, this sentence too was killing him inside, he doubted himself whether he would survive this separation from his precious, he doubted if he would ever see her again, but if faith was being kindly disposed, her chances would be outnumbered and she would find a new settlement and who knows one day a home. However, Kumiko thought different about that.

"What do you mean, leave?"

That same damned voice.

"I want you to leave and never come back."

She turned around and just like he had imagined it, her eyes widened like a sword was being stabbed through her heart, in any case it definitely felt like one. "What are you –"

"You have to let go of me."

Her icy blue eyes stared right through him, paralyzed and shaking, ready to cry any moment, making him wonder if she had ever cried in her entire life before, for as far as her mind-piercing jutsu went he didn't recall anything about tears. And for the first time it was Kumiko staring at Sasuke and almost going insane by the blank expression he was giving her, because really, didn't this really mean anything to him? For once she was the one who wanted to scream and yell he doesn't feel anything, but the pain and grief inside her heart was too strong and powerful to let her do this, she only collapsed as if she was having a terrible stomach ache, clinched onto herself like she was trying to gain her own affection, and before she knew it she cried, she cried so intensively and genuine it almost made him cry. Almost. Instead he turned around and walked away, not even granting her the smallest empathy, for now the most important thing for her was to leave. The idea of not holding her anymore did hurt Sasuke, it was an empty gap in the remain of his shivered black heart that was far from healing one day, it was that remain of insanity in his mind that had now been completely devoured. First his clan, then his friends, his brother, and now her.

"SASUKE!"

He hated her. He hated how she clinched onto his back and cried out her tears on his shirt, weeping uncontrollably like he was going to leave this world for good, but in reality he was only leaving her, for her own sake god damn it. It were her tears that made the departure so difficult, it was the way how she screamed out his name and recklessly seized for his shirt that made him want to turn around and hold her, because deep inside he yearned for it as much as she did. Little did he know that what was about to come was one of the deepest confessions Kumiko had ever told in her entire life, she was about to confess everything.

"I promised I would protect you. At first I thought I was doing it for Lord Orochimaru, I wanted to protect you because that was my way of protecting him, I wanted to be of any use. But I started realizing that whenever I was worried about you, it was because I cared about you and not Lord Orochimaru! I wanted to make sure _you_ were alright, I wanted you to be happy although I had no idea how, so I offered myself to you in the hope of it being enough. I wanted to see that smile from your memories when you were still a kid... I fell in love with you. Whenever I'm with you, I remember how it feels like to be wanted again, you remember me how it feels like to be in pain, to be sad and to love something."

Don't, fucking, cry.

"I love you Sasuke," her tears grew stronger, "and you promised me you wouldn't die, but leaving me here like this isn't any different from dying! Please, don't," she clinched her fists and tried to stop the tears, "don't go."

"Kumiko."

She looked up from behind her tears when he finally spoke after several minutes of awkward silence, when he flashed himself behind her and the wind blew their hair into the same direction and if Kumiko wasn't going insane she was sure she felt Sasuke's warmth being blown towards her by the wind. She felt the last bit of warmth in his heart fading away and dying. Was this goodbye?

"Thank you for everything."

She felt a sharp pain in the back of her head before everything went black. His sharingan eyes haunted her in the darkness after he laid her down on their bed and stole one last kiss of her lips, smiling it still tasted like cherries, however if Kumiko would've still been conscious she would have only concluded that his lips didn't taste like cinnamon anymore. The Sasuke she once knew had been devoured by his own hatred and crave to revenge, he was deaddead as much as both their families, still the last bit of Sasuke inside of his new body cried, and a tear dropped down on Kumiko's sleeping face. _Why did she have to be so beautiful._

* * *

"_Mommy?"_

"_Yes dear?"_

"_How is it like, to fall in love?"_

"_In love? Well, erm... You see this butterfly?"_

_Kumiko looked at the butterfly with her two big blue childish eyes, sitting care-free on the flower's petal and spreading its icy blue wings, like it was giving Kumiko some sort of sign. Its wings were as blue as her eyes, they shone as beautiful as hers and just like little Kumiko they smiled. She was probably one of the prettiest girls of the village, her mother was one of the most beautiful women of the village. Any man that has her should praise himself lucky, and any boy that was about to have Kumiko in the future should praise himself lucky, so her mother made a promise to herself, she promised that if Kumiko would ever fall in love with someone, she would make sure that this certain someone would never break her heart, because if so it would mean she had failed as a mother. _

"_Imagine a thousand butterflies in your teeny tiny belly, all tickling and teasing until you go insane!" She giggled and laughed when her mother tickled her, trying to imitate the butterflies, a lovely familiar laugh as usual, because if there was one thing Kumiko did, it was smiling day in and day out. She couldn't even imagine how her daughter would look like with a senseless face. _

"_Then I want to fall in love with someone like daddy!"_

"_You silly girl," and she combed her daughter's hair so she could braid it more easily, "how are you going to find a boy who's exactly the same as Nibori? Everyone has his own personality and beauty, and sometimes that beauty isn't to be seen from the outside, sometimes you have to look really really deep inside someone's heart before you find it, but once you find it," she smiled, remembering how she had met Nibori one faithful evening and how he had looked so broken and lost, "well, I guess you'll finally find out how it feels like to be in love."_

"_Do you think I'll meet someone like that one day mommy?"_

"_Of course you will honey," and she kissed her daughter on the forehead, "of course you will."_

"Sasuke... I have never found anything but darkness inside your heart, however I did find something of humanity left behind in it. Tell me, was that little remain of insanity inside of your heart meant for me? Or has it been devoured by hatred just like the rest of your body? Sasuke?"

–

"Is she gonna make it?"

"She'll be alright, look, I think she's waking up."

"Hey, are you feeling okay?"

She woke up seeing two blue concerned eyes watching her like a newborn opening her eyes for the very first time. It was an expression she hadn't behold many times before, for most of the times people only wished her dead and therefore didn't care whether she was dying or not. As soon as she was able to see the rest of the room and the people standing around her, she realized she was still in the room where Sasuke had left her, not really sure how she had ended up in this bed. Maybe the people standing around her had laid her down here, or maybe it had been Sasuke although she doubted the last option, in any case thinking about him hurt. The room was filled with the people she had attacked some days ago except for the woman who was healing her, that face didn't look familiar, still she didn't trust any of them, she didn't understand why they were helping her in the first place.

"She'll be alright," and she pulled away her healing hands. The woman had a deep determined voice and that also counted for her eyes, everyone of these Leaf shinobi had, but the blue-eyed boy with that strange wide smile was still the most admirable one. He seemed strong at a different level.

"Yeez shorty, you almost scared us." Kumiko had no idea how he did it, wearing that wide smile of his at this time of his life, having lost his best friend and not a long time ago his sensei but Naruto hadn't found out about that yet, and somehow Kumiko was jealous of him. She attempted to sit up straight when Naruto was about to help her, but instead of accepting his help she punched away his hand but quickly grabbed for her stomach after doing so, feeling like she hadn't eaten for days.

"Why are you helping me."

"Our reasons are for our own benefits, you just happen to be lucky we need you," the strong woman with the two ponytails said. That was Lady Tsunade's reason, however Naruto had his own reasons. He truly believed that Kumiko could still be saved from the darkness, even after what she had done.

She blinked her lifeless eyes, cursed herself deep down inside of her because again no one cared about her, again she was only to be used as machine, a weapon, as shield, a toy, anything!, it had always been this way and why, why was it that she simply couldn't just die. It would be so easy, it would only bring advantages and it would stop that aching eternal pain in her heart. However, when her thoughts slowly wandered to the dark again a light sparkle of Uzumaki-smile saved her from it and brought her back to the real world. She watched impassively at his white shining teeth and acknowledged a new sort of beauty, a beauty her mother used to talk about long time ago, a beauty from the inside. "Thehe, some ninja you are shorty, you almost got me there with that special ice-technique of yours!" He foolishly put forward his hand wrapped in bandages as if mocking her. "But I'm still going to defeat you one day, I never give up that's my ninja way!" She started to understand why this was Sasuke's best friend. She hated that Uzumaki-smile, and therefore admired him.

They escorted Kumiko back to the Leaf though she had no idea why, it would've probably been for interrogation and if not, Leaf shinobi were just stupid. Even Naruto was stupid for carrying her all the way to the village, even after nearly killing his friends, but Naruto had a certain respect towards Kumiko, after all he had seen her entire past, from her birth to Sasuke. He had respect for her because even after a bitter hard childhood and the constant abuse of his best friend Sasuke, she still moved on with her life, she still was willingly to die for her precious if necessary, she deserved the title 'ninja' more than anyone else. He was well aware that Sasuke had left her and that was exactly the reason why Naruto was acting so nice to Kumiko, because she feels the same aching pain of departure and she too still believed that Sasuke one day would return to the Leaf. It was the only considerable answer to why she had allowed everyone of his team to live, because she thought that one day Sasuke would return, and that Naruto would be the one to escort him. But instead it was Kumiko sitting on Naruto's back, and so she began to doubt the possibility.

"Naruto?" she gasped and everyone looked up because they were still expecting another voice, but no, it was still the same hideous one. But an ugly voice wouldn't scare Naruto away and somehow that made Kumiko feel a strange warm feeling inside of her stomach, because Naruto had been one of the few who didn't look down on her and for the first time in 5 years someone who granted her a smile. "Could you tell me about Sasuke's childhood..."

"Of course," he smiled, and as they were walking their way up to the village, their path of a new beginning was enlightened by the last orange sunbeams of the sunset, and he told about Sasuke when he was little and how Naruto hated him, how he wanted to keep up with him and how they happened to get in the same team. He still hates him, and that's why he's his best friend, and even now, when the two of them were separated, he could still feel the bond between them chained like chakra threads. The way how he was fascinatingly explaining his friendship with Sasuke was exactly what Kumiko wanted to hear, because it reminded her of theirs, and she promised herself that even now, after being left behind, she would still protect him with her life. She still was hopelessly in love.

* * *

The three of them walked down their path through the village, searching for supplies and maybe some unnecessary luxury-goods or ninjatools, when Sasuke suddenly stopped at a market stall that sold swords. Seeing this fine art of the forging, he first hand fell in love with a sword laying on a table underneath a glass box, the only one being locked away as if the salesman wanted to make sure the villagers would acknowledge this expensive sword. However, his intentions had been verified, for Sasuke had noticed the sword, and he wanted it alright, until he looked at the price-tag, then suddenly he didn't want it anymore.

"What's wrong Sasuke?" Kabuto asked, seeing how Sasuke was glaring at the glass box in the hope of it breaking so he could run away with the sword, but unfortunately it didn't. Maybe one day, when he was about to control his mangekyou sharingan and he could kill his brother with it. "What, you want that one?"

He said nothing and walked away.

"I'm sure Lord Orochimaru wouldn't mind," Kabuto smiled and seized for the wallet in his back pocket. "After all, it would only be beneficial for Lord Orochimaru if you would know how to hand a sword."

Although it didn't seem so, he could jump all the way up to the sky if he wanted to, thrilled about his new ninja-toy like a child getting its first kunai knife. That was until his eyes wandered to her pale skin, a cold stitching feeling overwhelming him every time he looked at her, for it were those eyes that somehow frightened him and seduced him at the very same time. Her chakra felt colder than most other ninja, it certainly wasn't red like Naruto's, but it wasn't necessarily a regular blue chakra either, it was probably a white one, because she reminded him of ice and ice was white. He still had no idea who this particular girl was, didn't know what Orochimaru's intention's were with this girl, he did know that Orochimaru was up to something, for he had noticed something in his Lord's eyes when he had been watching the two of them together. Like everything was exactly going according to plan, though Sasuke had no idea what plan. In any case, whether this girl was also a possible perfect vessel or simply a servant, as long as she didn't get in his way of gaining power he didn't mind her constant presence, in fact, he even admitted it made him feel comfortable.

Staring had become a habit when they spent time with each other, and just like any other time, he was finding himself doing the exact same thing as always, secretly not confessing she was just so so pretty to stare at that he couldn't keep his eyes off of her. But Sasuke had better things on his mind, for example learning how to hand a sword, little did he know that this new toy of his was a tool supposed to be taught by Kumiko Nakamura instead of his Master, for if he had known that he would've never asked for it in the first place. It became clear soon enough however, when they headed back to Lord Orochimaru's hideout deep deep in the woods, when Kabuto presented the sword to their Master who simply nodded leaving Sasuke questioned. He had thought his Sensei would've stood up to teach his new pupil in the art of the sword, instead of that he only spelled it with some sort of jutsu and left, so Sasuke looked at Kabuto who smiled and raised his glasses. Normally Sasuke would've gotten angry by now, but since this were only the first few weeks of his stay at Lord Orochimaru's liar, his ego hadn't grown enough yet to openly insult his Master nor his Master's left hand. In any case, Lord Orochimaru left as well as Kabuto, leaving Sasuke behind with the pale icy girl. He was about to walk away, assuming he was supposed to study this one on his own, when the sound of two following feet distracted him from his path on going outside. She was following him.

"What?" he asked insolently and frowned his eyebrows. As he asked her this question, still not fully trusting the girl, he lowered the sword in his right hand which was almost as big as the boy himself. She pointed blankly at the tool.

"You're telling me you know how to use this?" She nodded. He chuckled in his very own Sasuke-way. "Am I supposed to believe that? You barely know how to use a kunai-knife."

It was annoying how his offending words never had any effect on her, he was dying to know how she would look like when her face forms an expression, but that was something yet to discover, if he would ever be able to discover this in the first place. He turned around and continued when suddenly out of nowhere a kunai was being casted towards the lobe of his sword's shed, the sword suddenly hanging at the wall like a coat on a coat-rack, humiliating and surprising at the same time, and when he turned around she was still gazing at him with those same icy dreadful eyes. If she would say something from time to time, Sasuke was sure it would sound like 'not knowing how to use a kunai-knife, huh'. –

She danced gracefully while using her bow as some sort of weapon that could slice through anything, from leaf till tree itself, like she was guiding her weapon through a crowded room full of dancing nobles. She made it look so easy, with the right proportions, knowing where to find the right balance, how to change an attack into your advantage. It went from frontal attack to simple distraction, making your opponent lose its balance and striking at the vital spots. You could compare her technique with real art, any painter would die for painting a masterpiece such as this one, how she was cherubically performing ballet in the grass fields and her white dress blowing in the wind. And to make everything even more appealing, the sun had taken its position at the perfect spot, like her icy blue eyes were blending with the warm orange colour, leaving her eyes brown and her hair auburn red. He tried to stop watching her, he tried to focus on the moves, it didn't work. He hated her.

They continued this weekly practise the first two years so that Sasuke mastered his sword flawlessly, until one fateful day, when the cursed sun was at that perfect spot again, when her dress was blowing in the wind again and when her eyes and hair changed into a lively brown colour. That one fateful day when their connection was at its strongest, Sasuke was angry again because the new technique didn't work out, but he was about to find out for the very first time the solution and antidote to his anger and hatred.

He fell back pathetically when the power of his snakesword casted towards himself, for he had not yet controlled its power and therefore was still too naive adjusted. If Kumiko wouldn't be the sort of type that never shows her emotions, she would've rolled her eyes a thousand times by now. He cursed she hadn't taught him well enough.

"Your wrist, suppler," and she held it and plait his wrist in the correct way to show him what he was doing wrong, when their eyes suddenly met. They stared at each other for several lingering minutes.

The next moment she was finding herself pinned on the ground and his dark dark eyes above her. She thought back at her life at the Hidden Mist and _those eyes_, stared back at these dark ones which stared differently at her. For some reason these eyes didn't bear hatred towards her, these eyes didn't wish her dead, in fact, they betrayed something desirous. Her gaze dropped to the left when he pierced his sword in the ground right next to her head, close enough to slice away the tiniest bit of hair and warmed her left cheek with its electric shocks. She stared lifelessly at it while knowing Sasuke could've pierced it right through her head, but there was one thing Kumiko was sure of, and that was that Sasuke would never kill her for he needed her. And the other way round Kumiko needed him as much, for Sasuke Uchiha was her new purpose so she would take care of him without any hesitation, as long as it was helping Lord Orochimaru. His hand was shaking while still clinching onto the sword not out of fear but out of hatred and anger, not realizing that the anger and hatred he felt right now was because of this training and because of her bleak expression.

His nose traced down from neck to collarbone, absorbing the wonderful scent of the ocean, fresh air, freshly-cut grass and a touch of sweet cherries brushed like paint on her shoulders because of her shampoo, the strange smell of cinnamon and smoke, apples and sweat not yet stirring with it. Her smell was one little feature of her eternal beauty that kept you from training and concentrating, there was also her hair, her skin, her eyes and furthermore, everything except her voice. She was a natural piece of art in every possible way, as long as she held still and shut her mouth, so Sasuke covered her lovely small lips with his hand and continued the bunny-sniffing, almost going into ecstasies. She was better than any drug in the whole world.

"Go ahead."

He stopped after hearing her hoarse voice and looked up at her, ashamed by his own actions and lack of self-control and at the same time so so confused because she sent him a face like she didn't mind, worst of all, she just had told him she didn't mind.

"Lord Orochimaru assigned me as protector of his new perfect vessel," she continued, the first time in two years Sasuke properly witnessed the girl speaking such a long sentence, "so go ahead." She closed her eyes.

It was rumbling inside Sasuke's head, should he just take advantage of the opportunity? Can he just do something like that? What about the girl? But on the other hand, he was practically dying to do it. He was in the dark now, so should he even care about what the girl thinks? Maybe he should just do it, maybe he should just rip her clothes off and thrust his swollen limb deep inside her. He stared at the metal kunai knife catching most of the sunlight and reflecting it, as if it had fallen from heaven to give him some sort of sign. It rested teasingly at the inner side of her thigh with a bandage wrapped around it, pointing downwards like it was trying to get people from raping her. Sasuke seized for the knife, brought it to her dress and slowly but surely started cutting it when suddenly her breasts were exposed, small and firm but so so perfect, the first time Sasuke actually beheld a woman's body. He wanted to see more.

He continued after several minutes of staring, now cutting her underwear until every last bit of disturbing none-pale-skinned cloth was gone, and instead of shamelessly diving in he kept his eyes on her fragile small body. A beautiful girl she was indeed, but he had never expected to be able to count her ribs. It was now obvious that, even though Orochimaru had supported a roof over Kumiko's head, she was extremely underfed and far from healthy, because Sasuke had witnessed several times the experiments on Kumiko, how Kabuto stuffed her with drugs. And counting ribs wasn't the only thing he could do, he started counting the several scars on her chest and stomach. He lost count.

He stood up abruptly with only his pants on, for it was the only piece of cloth he had yet to take off if he wanted to fuck the girl, however he did not have the guts to do it after witnessing this. He wanted to leave right away before he would lose it, when her cold dying hand stopped him. "Don't – go easy."

He lost it.

As abruptly as he had stood up he found himself back on top of her, agitated working his way out of his pants and without even saying a thing penetrated her so so deep it almost seemed impossible. For the first time Kumiko narrowed her eyes and bit her underlip, but Sasuke wouldn't even have the time to admire the girl's expression for he had other things on his mind. He needed to get deeper, faster, and god, she felt great, amazing, so this was this strange thing called sex that every guy was talking about, he could do this all day if he wanted to. It was exactly the way how his perspiring body became one with her that made him lose it, but before Sasuke knew – after all this was his first time – he was coming after a minute or two so pulled back out of fear of awakening some sort of monster in her uterus. After wiping away the sweat on his forehead he started pulling himself together, when her icy blue eyes looked up at him, sending him a dead gaze that made you want to commit suicide. "STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!" and hit her in the face. He tried to relax his pounding heart and short breaths, stop his eyes from shaking, until they saw the little stream of blood dripping down her chin.

With eyes wide open he worked his way on his trembling feet and walked ashamed away. "I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU!" He lost it in a different way.

* * *

**Note:** In the first part Jiraiya was still alive, so this happened before he went on his mission. In the second part, when Tsunade heals Kumiko, Jiraiya's dead. This part happened right after Jiraiya died, although Naruto doesn't know about that yet. This also means that Pain's attack on the village is yet to come.

**Hey guys, I'm kind'a stuck with my story, so if you have an idea, please help me! ShadowOfSelfd.  
**

******Please do not add as favourite or follow without review, thank you.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 9: He never misses her**

"We are going to ask you some questions concerning Sasuke Uchiha. Any measurse will be taken if you do not cooperate. Dissolute behaviour will be oppressed. Do I make myself clear?"

She nodded blankly without looking at the scary man, for the floor was all of a sudden so much more interesting, while it was actually a really common grey floor. After they had arrived in the Village, Kakashi had brought her at once to the Police where she met a man named Ibiki Morino, wearing a sinister smile and a scar on his face. He had smirked ominously while looking at the girl, knowing this one could be broken easily, little did he know this was Kumiko Nakamura though, and this girl wasn't about to tell anything. They could torture and beat up all they wanted, she wasn't planning on letting any word escape from her tiny lips, because even though she really wanted for Naruto to find his friend and bring him back home, she would not forgive herself if she would betray anything about him. It were exactly those thoughts that kept wandering inside her head when the man was mentally toying with her mind, and with a simple sealing jutsu she shot off her memories in order to prevent Inoichi Yamanaka from penetrating her mind. It seemed so the entire interrogation-crew had underestimated this lifeless brat.

–

At the very same time Sasuke was finding himself at Madara's hideout, urging to suppress his anger, hatred and grief by slaughtering like maybe, one or two innocent people. Now that Kumiko wasn't there anymore, he needed to work off on something else. It wasn't half as good as his former 'medicine', but it was enough to satisfy his lusts though, although he secretly yearned for that pale-skinned body again with icy blue eyes. His team, team Taka, noticed the sudden behaviour in Sasuke's eyes, Karin in Sasuke's chakra, for this Sasuke wasn't the cold yet still human Sasuke who wouldn't leave until he had conquered the eight-tails without leaving anyone of his team behind. His eyes seemed darker and dead, his chakra cold, his sanity was slowly fading with every passing day without Kumiko Nakamura by his side, because somehow being with a cold icy girl kept him from turning into a mentally disturbed creature. Regardless of Kumiko's many efforts of keeping Sasuke mentally healthy, he had become sick, sick in his head, a sickness caused by loneliness, regrets and a great deal of pain, the perfect combination to make someone lose his mind. No one, not even Kumiko, would have ever thought that Sasuke would turn out to be so dependable of his protecting angel, and it didn't take long before the last bit of humanity deep inside Sasuke's black heart was being digested.

"First, I'm going to kill the elderly, and then, I'm going to destroy Konoha and all the living people."

"And what about your friends?" Madara asked idly like he had seen the answer coming all along.

"Friends?" he chuckled ignobly, "what 'friends'."

Karin watched anxiously from around the corner as Sasuke was talking to Madara. For once she wished that Kumiko would be here to lead him back to the real world, away from the dark dimension he had created for himself. Their next plan was to head to the Land of Iron and face the kages, all five of them, and it was not that Karin underestimated Sasuke or anything, but he was far from able to overpower five of the greatest ninja in the shinobi world even with his brother's new visual powers. Suigetsu and Jogu turned out to be hard of hearing once Karin talked about this in general, like they too though about it the same way but didn't want to face reality, or maybe they were afraid Sasuke would overhear them. Karin had noticed as well the difference in Suigetsu's behaviour, he acted calmer than usual and yet when it came down to teasing or ego he would suddenly reappear from his slump and confirm some sarcastic statement or make a bad joke. He trained harder with his sword than usual, told anyone that it was for gaining Kisame's sword, it was quite obvious though that he was only trying to keep himself busy in order to keep his mind from wandering to heavenly blue eyes. Karin would've never thought that this little whim as everyone referred to had cut deep enough to make him feel like this. She had never thought that Suigetsu actually liked Kumiko that much, yet on the other hand every man falls head over heels in love with Kumiko, and in any case it was for the best Sasuke wouldn't find out about this little whim, so Karin kept her mouth shut and pretended like nothing was going on.

* * *

Kumiko was finding herself in the centre of the village, overwhelmed by the amount of people dancing around her feet as they were hurrying their ways to work, the mall, family, and anything else a family had to do on a Friday afternoon. It was overwhelming and frightening, Kumiko started inhaling short and fast, when suddenly out of the blue a hand seized determinedly for hers and clinched onto it, two blue smiling eyes telling her everything would be okay and that she just needed to follow him. Through the people he escorted her towards a bar – first considering whether they should take a hold at Ichiraku's Ramen or not, but came quickly to the conclusion he didn't have any money in his pockets. Once in the bar he was still holding her hand firmly like a boyfriend should hold his girlfriend, almost making Kumiko turn read if she would only know how to though, when they stopped at a table filled with lots and lots of people of about her age probably, one by one strong and powerful but most of all, really weird shinobi.

The girl with pink hair – Sakura as Kumiko referred to it – shot her a hard glare and dropped her gaze to a chubby boy sitting next to her. She had seen each one of them in both Naruto and Sasuke's memory, yet still their names wouldn't emerge from her mind. The guy with purple eyes sitting next to a strange-looking boy with weird eyes and weird hair and weird _everything_, kept his gaze towards the icy girl, for a moment thinking she was afraid which she was indeed, until she noticed that the look in his eyes wasn't necessarily a bad one. It weren't those eyes, she had met so many people in this village that didn't look at her with those eyes that it was almost daunting.

"Everyone!" and they all looked up when Naruto proudly pronounced the village's newest addition, however, some of them had already met the icy pale girl and therefore had a most-likely good reason not to trust her. "I want you to meet Kumiko Nakamura! This is Sakura, Choji, Shino, Kiba, Ino, Shikamaru, Tenten, Lee, Neji, Sai and Hinata!"

Most of them kept their eyes fixated on the table out of fear, because they knew all too well about Kumiko's hidden visual powers, that wasn't much of a secret anymore, as soon as Kakashi was in full consciousness again, a ninja had been sent to the Hidden Mist where they obtained information about this so called 'Survivor'. All shinobi had been told about it, it was a tale most of them didn't think was true, a myth, but that myth was standing right in front of them now, and it was real alright. That's what Neji confirmed as well, her eyes were as admirable as the myth had described so.

Naruto took a seat next to the shy girl who turned pink when he did so, squeezed himself at the very end of the bench which led to an almost fainting Hinata, even Kumiko could see blindly through this particular behaviour. However, when she took place – she had seized for a stool – everyone kept their silence and stared at the table, the ground, a wall, ceiling, glass, anything but those dreadful blue eyes. The tension could've been cut with a knife, but since Kumiko was so inexperienced with human and socially behaviour she had no idea that this strange atmosphere was called 'awkwardness', nor did she know that this so-called awkwardness was supposed to _feel_ awkward. She just kept staring at her hands with a blank expression as usual, because even for the conquer sharing a table with her opponents it was everything but comfortable. That did not count for Naruto though, he kept wearing his Uzumaki-smile like never before and for a moment Kumiko though Hinata was going to lose it, when suddenly a glass was being pushed in her small fragile hands and when she looked up two white fangs were gleaming at her. Seeing the red fang-marks on his face this boy was definitely from the Inuzuka clan, a not so famous clan however famous enough to have been spread all over the country until the Village Hidden In The Mist. It was when she looked in his eyes when she remembered how she had abruptly formed a pair of giant rasengans that had wiped him and his dog off the map. She swallowed uneasily.

"Here you go."

"I don't have any m–"

"Naah, forget it."

She lowered her gaze to the drink and clinched onto it like anyone would do in the cold winter with a hot chocolate. Why both Kiba and Naruto acted so friendly towards Kumiko was yet another riddle to discover, in any case Kumiko had difficulties with accepting their hospitality, she was not yet used to this safe and guileless environment and kept wondering if there was a catch. And no one could blame her of course, after having spent 5 years with Lord Orochimaru, including 3 years with Sasuke, having spent only eight years of your life with a normal family and the next two years in solitude, no one could blame her for her emotionless behaviour and lack of trust. Slowly the group started conversing again, until Kumiko shattered the glass in her hand and it broke to pieces causing several little scars on her hand and the liquid would run on the table and floor. How she hated the colour red.

"How can you all act so innocent like nothing happened?!"

They kept staring at the girl for several dying minutes, those eyes, it was making Kumiko lose her mind so she clinched onto her own hair and hid her face. No, no, she was not going to cry and she was definitely not going to freeze someone till death. She knew how vulnerable she was when she was emotionally overloaded, and right now that definitely was the case, all those years of bottling up her feelings and thoughts, never have been able to go outside, never share her grief with anyone, it was this particular day and this particular gesture called 'generosity' that made her lose it. She began drowning in her own sea of fear which she had created gradually after so many years. All those people who considered her so cherubically beautiful and strong were so so damn wrong, she hated everything about herself, from pale skin to eyes that could kill.

"Kumiko-chan."

Those same two blue eyes were watching at her and smiling, like trying to reassure his new friend. She looked up with short shivers and met his eyes, stared incredulously at the hand he was offering her, exposed another Uzumaki-smile and reposed his hand. "It's nice when you show how you feel," he would simply say and then he would take back a seat and pretend like nothing had happened, like no one of the bar was staring at them in despise for the ongoing commotion, those eyes. Those looks, they all kept coming at her, like staring her to death if that would be possibly, causing this strong and powerful fear and hatred in Kumiko's heart she would not simply let go of. It was when one of the people's children, the one outstaring her the most although his look seemed slightly more like he was just curious instead of loathing, when Kumiko's glare froze like a connection made out of ice-threads with the kid, and how she could feel slowly but surely how everything around he was getting cold. The tiles underneath her feet turned into ice, the temperature lowered, people faded away and melted and the only one still being there was that little boy. He looked around and panicked once noticing he was all alone in this strange universe called Kumiko's personal fortress of ice, and all she was doing was staring soundly at the boy without blinking her eyes, taken away and slowly the little boy began to freeze from the inside, the ice enveloped his left eye and transmitted to his other eye and mouth. He screamed if he only was able to.

Her hand froze when it was suddenly held by a stronger one, and like the snow that would fade in the sunlight, the universe which she had created would drown as well. After a few seconds realization suddenly found its way back to her head, she stared in front of her and breathed heavily when she watched the boy standing in front of her, as pale as the ice she had used on him only a second ago. He took a few step backs, slowly turned around and run away, crying. As usual, kids were always afraid of the Survivor.

"I suppose that kekkei genkai of yours is something you don't control yet."

She turned her head 90 degrees and looked into two strong eyes possessing also a kekkei genkai, though much different from hers. The way he spoke was determinately just like the way he looked, the way he held her was different. Confident for sure, but also caring and harmless. Without much thinking and also because he didn't look back she turned her gaze to the floor, afraid she might use her mind-piercing jutsu again if she would stare any longer, but what bothered her the most was how he was still clinching onto her wrist. There was no need for him anymore to stop her like he was mocking her but actually he was only trying to reassure her. He let go of her in the end, when his friends called for him and told him they would have to go back to some man named Gai Sensei. He left without much saying nor looking at her, and she stared blankly at the boy disappearing behind the café's door. She finally understood how her Kekkei Genkai worked thanks to him.

"So, I don't have any missions today, what you wanna do?!" His excitement was as annoying as his smile, yet Kumiko could not stop feeling a strange empathize in her stomach as he was performing that same damn smile again. These people, this atmosphere, everything was so different from at Orochimaru's. Sure people would still look at her, but somehow it was different, they only envied her for the rumour she was causing, not for who she was, and that was something Kumiko appreciated. She found the male attention coming from the café's corner most disturbing yet also somehow, was it flattering? Before she even realized she pulled an astonished face and turned red, but Naruto was quick to interfere and escorted his new companion outside. When they walked through the crowd no one would back away from her, they didn't fear her and life would simply move on like nothing special was going on. A dog wouldn't mind running between her legs like running under a bridge and trying to catch up with his master, a kid wouldn't bother to ask her if she knew where his parents were. It was so awkward and strange yet also comforting at the same time, Kumiko didn't even know how to act like it. They stopped in front of a little school at the Village's centre and Naruto turned around, taking his role as escort and guide very seriously, it wouldn't take long before he'd pull out his umbrella and point at the buildings which he was talking about during the tour. Fortunately he didn't.

"This here's the ninja academy. I went to school here with Sakura and Hinata and all the other guys you met earlier. Even Sasuke went to this school. This is where we got our first headbands, awesome isn't it?"

All the other words became mumbles as soon as Naruto had dropped the name Sasuke, it'd dance on her lip like a little girl dancing ballet for the very first time. So this was this school she had seen in his past. Suddenly she couldn't gain enough information about it. As they head in, the weird-looking guy with bushy eyebrows was practising his taijutsu with – to make things even more fitting – a doll. And somehow, it would just happen to be the giant sack of hay would not fight back, my my, what a coincidence. Not really understanding how someone could practise taijutsu with a bag, her eyes turned to the next person with the Mickey-mouse hair and a pair of kunai knifes. She casted them towards the aim and hit it right in the middle. And next to her, the boy from earlier was sitting on the ground in front of an enormous map next to his Sensei which gave Kumiko the creeps because he looked exactly the same as Lee.

"Do you do this every day?"

Naruto looked startled after having heard Kumiko for another time, almost having forgotten the girl could actually talk, and instead of scoffing something about how obnoxious her voice was like Sasuke he would willingly answer, glad that she was taking some interest in their way of life. "Well practically, yes. It's actually a quite deadening job, being a ninja. At least, when you're not a mission of course. Anyways we gotta keep up with ourselves you know, so we practise every day!"

It was amusing and delightful to listen at someone so passionate about his way of life. And furthermore, it was fascinating to see how ninja would keep themselves busy after missions. Kumiko hadn't had a real training with her teammates anymore for five years, of course she hadn't, they were probably dead, and honestly, she missed the easy-going atmosphere and how you could count on one another.

Although Kumiko didn't want to, Naruto convinced her to go and watch their training a little closer. Everyone went silent as the strange girl from before performed herself on their training-area, but three gazing looks of them would soon turn into a smile, except for one of them still sitting on the floor and accurately kept working out his plan. "Well heeeello Kumiko Nakamura, my name is Gai, at your service!" The way he said that sounded like a porn star who just got fired.

"Kumiko wanted to take a closer look at your training so I dragged her all the way here."

"Why that sound fun! Hey maybe I can teach her something. I'm really good with targeting and knifes if I may say so."

The girl was nicer than Kumiko had imagined, the strange-looking one was still strange-looking but also friendly, and then we had Neji, still without much bothering keeping his eyes on the map. "Now's not the time Naruto, unlike others we have a mission to plan."

"Jeez Neji you're always so fixated. As far as I can see you're the only one working on this mission right now," and Naruto watched as Guy Sensei was running towards Kakashi and claiming he would win this time, that he wanted a re-match and how Kakashi refused but gave in in the end. "See, even Guy Sensei's not interested! Come on Kumiko, show them what you got." He hit Kumiko on the back as a support, a little harder than he had intended to and when the pain was increasing he realized he had used his hand wrapped in bandages. While turning red in pain and blowing on the wound in the hope of the level of aching pain decreasing, Neji pulled a frowned looked, rolled up the map and stood up. "Fine then, but not for too long."

"So Kumiko, are you good with targeting? You know how to handle kunai?"

"I heard Kumiko sliced Naruto's hand in two only using her bow! It's the fierce fire everyone is looking for in a woman's heart, a desire to fight and never give up, fight for the ones you love and get stronger to protect them!"Everyone looked oddly at Rock Lee who's eyes resembled a lot with sparkling billiard balls catching fire as he was determinately rising his fist in the air.

"Riiight, Kumiko-chan! Let's see what you got then!"

Before she even knew it an artificial bow was resting in her hand and Tenten was offering her an arrow, it was not half as good as hers but nevertheless it was enough, after all the Hidden Leaf had confiscated her weapons and headband. She didn't have much of a choice, in fact, she was expected to do it, maybe it was the least she could do after having nearly killed their friends. Although she did not get what the point of all of this was, because really it wasn't that much of a deal, it was a simple issue of concentration, relaxation and focus. Having to hit a target while standing still wasn't even considered a challenge anymore, for something like that Kumiko didn't even need her eyes, so she decided to make herself a little less convenient and aimed for something else than the target, way further and difficult to reach. She took her position, took a deep breath, stretched her arms, closed one eye, aimed for the spot, let go of her breath and before they knew, the arrow had fled. With one straight line it crossed a tree, sliced through a leaf, tickled a caterpillar's graceful waist and ended up in a tree. At the very end of it was a fly thrashing around like a fish on the dry for his wing had been severed, but apart from that as healthy as a horse. And all of that in only a few seconds.

Suddenly Tenten didn't like her anymore. Suddenly Naruto and Lee acknowledged her talent even more. Suddenly Neji would look up from the ground.

"You're... Good." Tenten didn't know whether she should praise her for having such talents and maybe crown her as her new Sensei or if she should be jealous, for have all those years of training been for nothing? In any case, that wasn't something that Kumiko would bother, because no one of the girls had ever liked her for some reason, it was only natural why, Kumiko was everything a girl wanted to be, she had the beauty, the talent and the intelligence. But nevertheless they forgot some really bad issues about being her: her entire past for example. How she had been casted by her own people, how she could not control her own talents and how she was so foolishly naive and unable to express her own feelings. Maybe being her wasn't that great.

"It's not that amazing."

His words were selected sophisticatedly, like he wanted to keep the cold disguising image and mask he was wearing all of the time. And somehow, even though his words weren't necessarily those of a compliment, it was actually what Kumiko wanted to hear. She was one of those people who truly thought of herself that everything about her could be improved, and also, those cold disagreeing words reminded her of a certain someone. She looked at him from head till toe and took in every part of his body and clothes, looked into his eyes and saw those dark dark eyes she had fallen for a long time ago, when they slowly returned to their former purple colour, and he stared despicably at her, looked away when their eyes met and uneasily sighed. Naruto watched how she walked away almost like falling apart, for having remembered how his eyes used to look like before Sasuke had turned into a resentful revenge-eating monster. He saw by the way how she was leaving and how a tear rolled down her cheek that she needed time on her own, that whatever she was thinking about was him. She wandered away from here and searched for a deserted spot near a tree at the park, watching the sun turning orange and slightly pink, slowly going to sleep.

There was something in this village Kumiko simply couldn't understand, how people could lack so many resembles which each other and could still be friends, without expecting something of one another. They smiled, shared feelings and thoughts, they gave compliments for god's sake, and honestly told you when they didn't agree. It was strange how you could read people so easily in this village, how words weren't even necessary anymore to understand each other. It was the reverse of living with Sasuke Uchiha at Lord Orochimaru's, and it was even more confusing. In the end Kumiko gave in, and before she realized all the anger, hatred, sorrow and fear flowed out of her eyes in the shape of tears, she cried for a very long time without really understanding why. This atmosphere as she had been referring to all this time was what she had missed all those years from the moment the people at her village started neglecting her. It felt so warm and overwhelming at the same time it had become too much for Kumiko.

"I didn't really mean that."

Behind her back she heard the same voice as a few minutes ago, now only apologizing instead of scolding at her. She crawled together like a foetus to try and hide her tears, but for having such marvellous icy blue eyes you could tell immediately if she had been crying or not and really, a distressed face such as this one did not fit her at all, even Neji was able to tell that. But he decided not to say anything about it, because even if he did not know this girl, he knew exactly what kind of a girl she was and therefore knew how to handle them. "I'm bad at apologizing."

Her sobby red eyes watched him as he stood by close and took a seat next to her in the grass, his long long hair blowing in the soft wind as well as hers. Neji's hair was probably as long as Kumiko's when hers was tied in a braid. So he too was bad at apologizing, what more parallels were about to come? But despite sharing the same distanced arrogant temper Neji didn't look a thing like Sasuke. He was one of those boys who had a hard time accepting who he was, without hurting the people around him like Sasuke does. And maybe he was bad at apologizing, he tried though, having caught Kumiko's full attention now for having witnessed someone's first real apologize. "Some people don't deserve other's tears."

Of course he was talking about Sasuke, so much was obvious, and his words cut deep like knives, mostly because what he said was true, Sasuke wasn't worth crying for. In the end Kumiko could cry as much as she liked, he still wouldn't hear it and he still wouldn't return, that was Sasuke Uchiha, and Sasuke had never needed her in the first place, but then why was she having such a hard time letting him go? Despite trying as hard as she could there was still this lingering gap inside of her heart which wouldn't fill unless she thought about Sasuke. She tried to hate him, it didn't work.

"Listen, I'm not good at this," he spoke and watched as the sun finally left, "and I can tell you a dozen of times you should forget about him because he's only hurting you, but I know you won't listen. Even if you do let go of him, even if you do move on with your life and start a new one, there will always be a part of you hoping for him to come back one day. I know that because you care for him as much as Naruto does, and just like Naruto you won't give up one him. But there's one thing you should know so you can finally start accepting yourself for who you are."

A strong wind blew her braid into his direction and she turned her head towards him, but still he wouldn't look her in the eyes, so she began to think he was avoiding her eyes on purpose, and not because he was scared of her kekkei genkai. His face seemed so strong and self-confident, it was something Kumiko really looked up to.

"You deserve better."

She stared startled at his purple eyes.

He stood up and decided it was enough for today, comforting people wasn't Neji's habit and thanks to all of this he was way behind schedule. He could've stayed to finish the preparations for the village, but this little voice inside of his head was whispering in his ear to go and check on the girl. And Neji couldn't deny the fact that from the very first moment he had seen her he had been taken away by those eyes of hers, so tender and fragile and strong and cold and so much more, so unique. Certain eyes you could drown in every day of the week. A few feet away from her, she was still staring startled in front of her with eyes wide open and lips slightly separated. He stopped walking when she used her voice for the first time in hours, almost having forgotten she could talk.

"Better?" she repeated incredulously.

"Way better," he smiled and walked away. Another tear rolled down her cheek. He decided she liked the sound of her voice.

* * *

**Sorry for the late update guys, I can be very lazy these days. Next chapter will probably be the last one. Don't forget to review, add as favourite and follow. Please do not add as favourite or follow without review, thank you. This is your captain speaking, ShadowOfSD.**


	11. Chapter 11

**- Attention: if you haven't seen episode 197 – 216, you won't be able to follow the story**

**Chapter 10: Kumiko Nakamura, Final Words**

"It's got everything to do with us! Sasuke Uchiha of the Hidden Leaf attacked our village!"

"Your rogue ninja abducted our master! We don't even know if our master is dead or alive, you idiots!"

"Why would Sasuke do such a thing?!"

"Like we'd know what the Akatsuki's motives are! Sasuke is a member of the Akatsuki!"

Sasuke is a member of the Akatsuki. It felt like those words were ripping out Kumiko's cold heart. She could only stand over there behind the tree, glaring in front of her with eyes open so wide they could pop right out. Sasuke is a member of the Akatsuki... She needed to sit down for a while and retrieve her breath. Could it be that Sasuke really had fallen this deep in despair he had become a member of the Akatsuki? And if so, was this the reason why he had abandoned Kumiko? Should she feel guilty now for having her heart filled with the slightest bit of hope if there was the possibility that her ward had left her for her own safety? She wanted to find out the truth herself, despite the fact that the Leaf would never let her go she felt like she needed to go in order to find peace. Dying without knowing the answer was one of her biggest fears, whether that answer was what her heart wanted to hear or not, she had to know. Naruto would definitely help her, he would understand, but the Hokage would never allow this. However, the Hokage wasn't among them for now, and breaking out of this village at this time of crisis would be a piece of cake. She considered the possibility.

"You wouldn't be planning on sneaking away, would you?"

"Neji," she gasped when he would suddenly appear behind her and with those purple eyes stare her into the ground. Of course he knew what she was thinking. It wasn't hard to tell, the expression on her face was like an open book. It actually made him smile, Kumiko had changed spending her days at the Leaf. Of course she was still quiet and shy and not much of a talker, but she had accepted herself and had acknowledged herself, and therefore had learned how to show a facial expression. The blank look in her eyes had switched places with a startled expression now, and although she wasn't smiling like an actress would on the red carpet, she was marvellous wearing this expression. It suited her like a dress.

"You were," but she would look away in order for Neji not to see the guilt in her eyes. She bit her under lip and wished this entire confrontation was about to end, but Neji wasn't planning on leaving it with this. With his hand he cupper her chin and made her look at him, and she had to look all the way up to the sky for she was so tiny compared to the common woman. "I wouldn't blame you," he then said while looking at her eyes. It was noticeable how she had already cut the habit of not showing any emotion.

"I have to do this." Her hand seized for the one that was holding her face, and with thumb she would softly pet it and compare her hand to his, which were so much bigger than hers. Archery requires big hands, then how on earth had she ever been able to do it properly. Neji would be good at it, she guessed.

"I know you have to, and I know how you feel about him. I'm not planning to stop you, in fact I want you to do this. Just promise me one thing."

She looked up from his hand like an innocent child would do when her mother would ask her why there were only three cookies left in the box. His eyes looked a lot like hers, while hers were light light blue like ice his were light light purple, and just like her Neji had long brown hair. They resembled with each other so much in any possible way, Neji the perfectionist as he was just like her, also having been convinced by Naruto that they can change their faiths, also never smiling too much and having difficulties with explaining how they felt. It was almost frightening and it could've been almost perfect. It had appeared Neji was a difficult boy to get to know, he never got personal and was almost all of the time busy with work, that was what his friends said, however Kumiko and Neji had gotten along very soon after their first chat. They would look at each other and know what they were thinking. Maybe it was because of the eyes, or maybe just a really close bond that was bound to be attached one day and had finally found its better half. It somehow reminded her of Sasuke, because when they would share glimpses they too would see what the other was feeling. But when that happened Kumiko saw only hatred, sorrow, grief, darkness. Neji was different.

"Promise me you'll come back."

There was a certain genuineness within Neji's voice so vulnerable it seemed like it could break any moment. Perhaps she should just turn around and walk away, leaving him behind with an eternal uncertainty that might have an effect on the rest of his life, but how could she possibly promise a foolish thing like that, knowing that the odds were rather great and she might turn out dying. Furthermore, as he asked her something impracticable like this, it made her remember the promise Sasuke had pleaded her not a long time ago. No, this whole ode was nonsense, she could never promise something like that and the further they would separate from each other the better, in the end it will be Neji who will turn out to be the hurt one. As much as she thought of him as okay – in fact she wasn't even aware that she actually liked him – there still was Sasuke, and he was the one who still possessed her heart. It was time for her to retrieve it or leave it there knowing it was safe, and Neji couldn't help her with something like that.

"I can't."

"You don't have to tell the truth, you might as well lie, I only want to hear it from you."

"There's no reason for me to tell you a lie, what benefits will you obtain with that."

"Not much." The wind would break the lingering silence, both of them could not find the courage to look at each other. Even for Neji, who was normally able to keep his cool at times like this, was finding himself in a rather difficult situation. He really liked Kumiko, he had never liked anyone else as much as he liked her, and it did look like she liked him back, but despite the fact they got along very well he doubted his feelings were mutual. After all Kumiko was still a fucked-up girl who didn't understand herself yet, she might look all grown-up, in fact she's only a child desperately looking for her own identity. Maybe he should just forget about it. Her heart already belonged to someone else in the first place.

"I wish I could help you, but this is something you have to do on your own. Just remember that I'll be waiting for your return."

"O-okay." Even for senseless Kumiko it was getting hard to act as expressionless as usual. Words were unable to reach to her lips and the biggest retards could feel the tension in the air. At the moment it was best for her to leave, before Neji would follow her. Applying her bow and arrows on her back, ready for a fight if that would be the case, she was ready to go.

And as soon as she was ready to go, Neji seized for her shoulder, spun her around and answered her lips with his. It didn't take long, they had barely touched, but it was all Neji needed to describe his feelings towards her, and Kumiko understood them alright. They were warm just like his lips, genuine just like his decisiveness and so much different from Sasuke's. While she was used to bitter cold broken lips, warm and welcoming ones were being presented in front of her like now a plate of food. She didn't even know whether enjoying the feeling was allowed or not.

With eyes wide open she stared paralyzed in front of her, watching Neji and unable to speak. She wanted to drop herself on the floor, cry for maybe like a day or two and then hope for death to overcome. The least a girl needed at this time was a goodbye kiss from someone she didn't understand her own feelings about. It was Sasuke she loved, but it was Neji who responded it and would be the only one to fulfil it, how was she supposed to react now? She had no idea.

Neji made things for her convenient though, he was well aware Kumiko was in too much of a shock to say anything, so he turned around and let her be, thinking that leaving her alone with her thoughts was the best he could do right now. Deep down hoping that he had convinced Kumiko to stay, that she did was able to start a new life in their village and who knows maybe one day start a family. It didn't necessarily need to be with him, it could be anyone, as long as she was happy and would find her way back to happiness and just a smile in general. On the other hand, would she ever find peace if she would never ask Sasuke this one question she was dying to ask him? No, she wouldn't, she had to go, what the hell was he thinking, he's so selfish.

Her gaze turned to the departing Naruto, Yamato and Kakashi. Suddenly unaware of what had happened, or maybe she just didn't realize yet, she went after them and followed them. That question she was dying to ask, soon she would know the answer.

* * *

"Kumiko, get out of here! Sasuke's not who he used to be! Go back to the village, that's an order!"

But Kakashi's words would fade away as she was staring right back into Sasuke's eyes turning slightly blinder bit by bit every time he overused amaterasu and susanoo. She felt like being pierced to the ground, she was shaking like a straw, words could not find their way to her lips. And he too was paralyzed. This was not according to plan, not at all, why was she so obnoxiously stupid to appear at a time like this right in front of his eyes, right in front of Madara's eyes. The disguised man wasn't retarded, the story of the Survivor Kumiko Nakamura was known all over the country, so he too knew about this, he too knew about her great chakra storage and probably knew about her exclusive beauty. There was no way Madara would mistake Kumiko for someone else, and if only his mask would show an expression maybe Sasuke would be able to see whether he recognized the girl or not, though his mask was as blank as Kumiko's face. However, despite the fact she was paralyzed with fear and grief, she looked different than before. Could it be, that Naruto?

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

Everything went silent, the fighting stopped, and even Madara would watch the drama as Sasuke was shouting at Kumiko who was standing miles away in the woods, now having fallen back on the ground but still with eyes wide open. Even his shouting was different, while Sasuke would yell most of the times, whenever he was angry with Orochimaru or her, he would shout with all disgust, but this time it was insanity gulping down his coolness. He gritted his teeth when she didn't answer, clenched his fists and swung around his sword like a toy and why the hell was Kumiko here?! Stop looking like that!

"ANSWER ME! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE?! SAY SOMETHING!"

Naruto wanted to go to his friend, but Kakashi stopped him. This was something the two of them needed to fix on their own. Sure Sasuke was going to lose his mind even more, but they could not interfere. Kumiko had to do this. Frustrated by the fact that his precious was here, Sasuke ran forward to get closer to her and his rage would increase as well as the distance was gaining. He forgot he could use teleportation jutsu to find himself next to her because of his anger, that jutsu she had learned him a long time ago to travel as fast as sound was being stored up as well, he was standing there on the water, miles away from her, so so angry he was going to lose it.

"WHY DID YOU FOLLOW ME?! WHY DO YOU KEEP UP MESSING EVERYTHING?! GET OUT OF MY HEAD YOU FREAK! WHY –"

"Because I wanted to ask you something!"

Frightened by her own actions, Kumiko quickly covered her mouth with her hand like she was startled by her own words. Looking at him became difficult, half because of the tears and half because she was so disgusted by him. A thought crossed her mind several times: who's the freak, who's the freak. What the hell happened to you, Sasuke Uchiha? Have you lost insanity because of the departure of your medicine? Have you drowned into your own despair because your protecting angel wasn't there to help you? Sasuke? Sasuke?!

"I," and she swallowed and bit her lip in the hope of stopping herself from crying, "I need to know..."

"Then what are you waiting for!"

"Do you love me?!"

Something snapped in Sasuke's brain. Love? Do I love you? What the hell, love, how can someone possibly love another when there isn't even a proper definition for that word? He stood there, paralyzed with his sword still in his hands and his sharingan had faded away, instead of that his former dark dark eyes began slowly fading grey like they were turning blind, and the tear of blood on his cheek represented the grief he was experiencing right now in his heart. This girl, who does she think she is, rudely interrupting and claiming all the attention to herself! So selfish to demolish his entire plan of saving her from the Akatsuki, and now she presented herself like a Christmas gift on the edge of the door for Christ's sake!

Having lost his mind, Sasuke ran towards Kumiko and with a severe strike hit her stomach with a chidori. Coughing up blood that ended up on his arms, her hands steadily seized around his arm and pulled it out. His breathing became unsteady as he watched how her will to fight increased and how she was determined not to give up. She had grown, and more importantly she had friends now, friends who helped her out.

Naruto separated them eventually, Kakashi Sensei and Sakura occupied with the masked one. With a rasengan Sasuke was finding himself smashed against a tree, but fighting was no option now, he had used up most of his chakra during his fight with Danzoo. So he went for a face-to-face combat using his snakesword only as defence, but what bothered him the most was that Naruto was fighting to defend Kumiko. She could still be saved if Sakura would heal her on time and deep inside Sasuke's heart made a jump, but the insanity took over soon enough. His friends needed to die, the entire village needed to pay, and Kumiko was the one standing in his way, knowing that if Kumiko were to stay in the village he would not find it in his heart to destroy the village. She had come to ask him the question if he still loved her, the truth was yes, but no way he was going to admit that. Besides, dark Sasuke wasn't going to allow weak Sasuke to tell her. Defending himself from Naruto was number one priority now. But when he saw in the left of the corner of his eyes that Kumiko was seizing for her bow and arrow he could not believe it. How on earth was she still able to move, having coughed up so much blood?!

She gathered the last bit of strength in her body while pulling her right arm back and her left hand holding onto her bow. Biting away the pain she managed to stop her hands from shaking and aimed for that boy with ravenblack hair and dark dark eyes she once loved. Now sitting here faced with him she realized it more than ever before: Sasuke was dead. A monster was inhabiting his body now, and someone needed to kill it and set the real Sasuke free. Kumiko felt like that was her responsibility, after all she had created this monster. She had hoped that assisting her precious would have saved him, because after all seeing Sasuke happy was the only dream Kumiko had, but no, she couldn't even manage that. The least she could do now was make up for her crimes and help him out of his suffering. The arrow was aiming for the heart, but when dark dark eyes met icy blue ones once more, her heart skipped a beat and she was a second too late to release the arrow. He transported himself in front of her and with one determined attack of his sword cut his way right through her head, brains, tongue, throat, deep into the earth.

–

Where am I? Am I, dead?

Coughing and trembling she pushed herself from the white floor and gathered all of her strength to get up. She was finding herself in a complete white dimension she had never experienced before. It seemed like there was no end to it, there was no air either, you could run this path for eternity and never find the end of the tunnel, and she was all by herself. No hand for her to help her get up, no voice to reassure the pounding of her heart. Her eyes had turned to a normal deep blue instead of the former icy colour and her chakra level was weaker, not because of having used some of it, but because her amount had decreased in general, like someone had stolen it from her. Her hair was moisten just like her face from lying on the wet floor. It was only because Kumiko was a great ninja that she could sense something was wrong with her body. Her eyes felt heavy, her chakra low, and it seemed like her kekkei genkai ice release was gone. No, actually, her second chakra nature wind had faded away. In all disbelief she stared at her shaking hands.

"Didn't expect to see you so early!"

Behind her was standing a girl in a white oversized dress, smiling genuinely at her while offering Kumiko a hand to help her up. Where she had appeared from was unknown, but Kumiko was startled by her appearance and words were short. If it weren't for a different haircut, they looked exactly the same.

"It's good to finally see you sis."

After Kaoru had helped her up, without a warning she desperately embraced her sister to find out whether this was just a genjutsu or for real, but when she held her she didn't fade away, instead she smiled as Kumiko was crying exaggeratingly and harbouring her like a baby. Holding her twinsister like this, it was incredulous and daunting at the same time. It was too great to be real, were they mocking her or was she just being reunited with her family for she was dead?

"I don't get it, what is going on?! Why are you here and why aren't you mad and what's up with this dimension?! I don't get any of it..."

"My dear dear sister," and Kaoru cupped her sister's cheeks with her hands to make her look at her. Now that her eyes had turned to a normal deep sky blue she looked even more beautiful. "You're set free from you burden as a twin."

"Set free?" she repeated in all disbelief and rubbed her eyes to stop the tears. "Does that mean I'm dead?"

"Quite the opposite, your life has yet to start actually. Right here, together with mother, father and Master Nibori."

Was it even possible to believe it? All of a sudden her sister, her twin sister who she had killed with her own bare hands for Christ's sake, would appear in front of her, claiming that life was beautiful, everything was alright, the ones she thought were dead were still very much alive. Kumiko couldn't believe her eyes of course. Thousands of emotions flew through her body as she stared in all disbelief at her family standing at the other side of the white dimension, all smiling and waving to come over like nothing was wrong. She could nearly succumb by her own distress if it weren't for her sister to hold her hand and guide her to her family. What had happened all those years that Kumiko was alive was unknown, Kaoru wasn't mad at her, for some reason Nibori Sensei and her father seemed to get along, and for the first time in so so many years her mother would watch her with vividing eyes rather than scared ones. Was it because her chakra level had decreased to normal seize and her eyes weren't frightening ice anymore as before? Or had her mother loved her all along. Where was she, and what had happened?

"M – mother?" Kumiko asked and glared at her smiling mom as tears filled her eyes again, wondering if she would be able to touch her, so she tried, and butterflies popped up in her stomach as she felt the tender soft skin of her mother's hand slipping through her fingers. So this was how her mother used to feel like. She wanted to take in all of it, swung her arms around her mother and cried hysterically, not knowing whether she should be happy to see her or angry for having left her for all those years and now finally showing up. She wanted to curse her father for having killed mommy and fake daddy and at the same time hold him too, and she wanted to show her fake daddy how much of a great ninja she had become and hopefully receive his admission. But while her spirit slowly filled with all kinds of different emotions and questions, her sister held her too, and soon both her fathers followed.

"Welcome home sister," Kaoru whispered, "welcome home."

–

"Sasuke," Naruto gasped and stared in all disbelief at Kumiko's corpse. "What did you –"

"BACK OFF!" His eyes were shaking while watching his guardian just like his hands which were still holding onto his sword. The snakesword was still pierced through her head right into the surface of the earth, lightning still emanating. It was too late to protect her now of course, her dead eyes were mesmerizing as they stared at Sasuke asking the same question over and over again. Why why why, he couldn't even tell himself. Not considering the consequences he had stabbed the only girl he had ever felt something for right through the head, after having ignored the only question she wanted to find the answer to. He pulled out the sword hastily, threw it aside and with trembling hands seized for her face covered in blood and dirt, but when hands almost touched it he could not find the courage and pulled back abruptly while silently moaning like he was in pain. He wanted to scream, unaware that Naruto, his elder sensei, Sakura and Madara were also there, and gather her dead body in his arms but on the other hand it felt like a pathetic last resort of trying to gain forgiveness. Instead of that, as Naruto crouched down next to him but could not catch his attention for Sasuke's eyes were fixated on that tiny dead body in front of him turning even paler than before if that was even possible, memories of Kumiko flashed by so intense it was almost hurting him. He remembered their first meeting, training, abuse, love, the promise, goodbye, hurting the only woman he had ever loved, and she had never stopped loving him back, and now he had killed her. What now? What now, Sasuke thought to himself. His eyes may be turning blind, he remembered well enough Kumiko's beauty, she was dead now, the only light in his surrounding darkness was out, and as fast as that light had faltered to pieces, something snapped inside Sasuke's head. The most stupid thing Naruto could possibly do now was trying to touch him.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" All of a sudden the uncertainty of touching Kumiko melted like ice in the sun, he stumbled while trying to get up and since it didn't work he crawled away and grabbed Kumiko's body firmly, holding it in his arms and shaking like he was having a panic-attack. With feet pushing off he wanted to gain distance between him and Naruto, protecting the dead weight in his arms, like that would help. Maybe he was just trying to pledge Kumiko he really did love her, knowing it was already too late, but perhaps if he tried hard enough she'd receive his message in the afterlife.

"Sasuke," Naruto said calmly, trying to reassure his friend. It was difficult to ease the anger though, after all Kumiko had become his friend, but right now keeping his cool was crucial. "She'd dea –"

"No she's not! Get away from her! I can still save her! I can –" and he scanned the environment searching for something, anything useful, when his eyes fell on Sakura. She was a medical ninja now right?! So maybe?! "Don't you just stand over there like an idiot! You're a medic nin right! Do something!"

"Sasuke," Naruto repeated again and seized for his friends shoulder, but Sasuke tried crawling back even more. Three sorrowing faces from his former team were watching him.

"What?! Why are you all staring like that?!"

"She's gone Sasuke, she's dead..."

"... D – dead?" As reality was slowly sinking into him and his eyes locked on Kumiko's dead face, he noticed how her eyes had turned into a dead blue colour, her pale skin was paler as ever before, lips slightly parted and arms dangling next to her on the floor. There was no sign of life, the blood leaking from her mouth and head started spreading on Sasuke's clothes like a disease slowly eating from you, and with shaking hands he watched them as they were covered in blood, her blood. He hated the colour of her blood. He hated everything about her.

"Sasuke!" Naruto grabbed Sasuke's arm but was too late, he had already vanished to another dimension together with the masked man, leaving behind Kumiko's corpse although Sasuke had tried to hold on to it desperately. His hand was reaching for air, and underneath his arm was Kumiko's body sleeping. The way how her eyes were watching him was almost blaming, like asking it over a hundred of times: why didn't you save me Naruto? Why? He had suffered plenty of deaths but now having to face one straight in the eyes, knowing what kind of cruelness she had been through, it was a lot more difficult than expected. Having spent her entire life in darkness and sorrow, this was how it ended? By his best friend's hands for Christ's sake?

"Naruto," the vague phantom in front of him gasped, and he recognized all too soon that obnoxious voice, suddenly sounding so much more beautiful. Was he able to see her spirit? It was only a temporary soul transference jutsu though. "Don't cry over me, will you?" and her hand lifted Naruto's head but actually she couldn't touch anything at all. "I'll be gone completely soon. I want you to have this."

"Wh – What is it?" As Kumiko touched Naruto's hand a bright icy blue glow transferred to him and occupied his body.

"It's a small amount of my chakra that I'm transferring into you. Please tell Neji that I couldn't keep my promise. And Naruto?"

He glared at her with moistening eyes.

"Thank you for setting me free," and her last bit of chakra faded away.

* * *

**Don't shoot me for having Kumiko die at the end of the story, I just felt like it needed to happen okay! Anyways, I wanted to present a story that emphasises how much Sasuke has changed throughout the series. Don't get me wrong, my favourite character is and always will be Sasuke, still he's turning a liiiitle crazy. Don't forget to review, add as favourite or follow. To confirm for the ones that keep asking: THIS IS THE END OF THE STORY.  
**

**Please do not as add as favourite or follow without review, thank you, ShadowOfSD**


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